The Synthetic Truth
by Akari78
Summary: Sequel to Questions of Allegiance. Just as the Railroad prepares to make its move against the Institute, Father names Tessa Grey as his successor, which leads to a final confrontation between the two warring factions. Lives are lost, a secret is revealed, and the Commonwealth changed forever.
1. Director Grey

The halls of the Institute were cold and sterile. Even with so many souls within them, trapped deep beneath the surface of the earth, they felt empty. Tessa's boots clanked loudly with each step, nervous hands tugging at the collar of her Institute coat. She'd once been in awe of the cleanliness, of the white walls and dirt free flooring, but after so long in the Commonwealth it was disturbing. "Tessa Grey," called a voice over the PA, a synth no doubt, "please join Father and the Directorate in the meeting room." She adjusted her collar again as she twisted up a large stairwell to where the Division Heads and the Director, her son Shaun, awaited.

Coming to a stop at the door, Tessa sucked in a breath of air and ran a hand through her short blonde hair, trying to calm down. When the door came open with a soft automatic whoosh, Tessa had found her cool and gave a polite nod to those inside as she took her place besides her son at the long white table within. "Greetings Mother," Shaun said with a small smile, "how do you feel?"

"Well enough," she forcibly smiled, "nervous. Last time you called me into your Directorate meeting you announced you had cancer." Her smile faltered, catching the sadness in her son's eyes. "I take it you haven't found a cure…"

"Unfortunately, no."

"I see… What's this all about then?"

"You."

Tessa stiffened as she felt the eyes of the Directorate upon her, Shaun's emotions hidden behind a mask of professionalism. Justin Ayo, the head of the Synthetic Retention Bureau and an aging Asian man, scowled at her with clear disapproval. The mop-headed blonde man Clayton Holdren seemed more amiable towards her than the last time Tessa had sat in on a Directorate meeting. Tessa suspected it was due to her talking a group of rebellious scientists down from causing an incident within Clayton's own division, BioScience. Then again they'd been upset at Tessa's growing presence in the Institute, having far more freedom inside its halls than Kellogg ever had.

Meanwhile, Madison Li and Allie Filmore, the Advanced Systems and Facilities heads were a mixture of wariness and optimism. Tessa hadn't interacted with either of them much, Allie kept the systems operating; maintenance, food, housing, the far less scientific yet crucial tasks. It had been Allie who Tessa had assisted with recovering the Mass Fusion reactor core with. Madison Li however, was the one behind a majority of the Institute's more prototype technology, to include the child synth that had first greeted Tessa upon arriving in the Institute.

Of all the eyes upon her, all she cared for were those of her son.

"Okay?" She coughed, uncertain what he was implying. "What do we have to discuss we couldn't have done in private?"

Shaun stood up, holding himself with authority as he pushed in his chair and turned to the window behind him, granting the dying man a beautiful view of the Institute's atrium. Tessa followed his gaze best she could, taking in the transparent elevator in the center of all the glass and fountains, plastic like supports rotating around it reminiscent of DNA. Tessa could easily remember riding down that elevator from the teleportation relay the first time, the awe at seeing such a clean and advanced place soon overwhelmed by her thirst for revenge and desire to rescue her son. She mused for a moment how wrong she had been.

"I am dying," Shaun began.

"I know," whispered Tessa, unable to hide her grief. Despite what she was doing with the Railroad, she still hurt over what was happening to him.

"I do not have a successor. My only children are that of the Gen Three synths, but naturally they are unsuitable to lead," Shaun continued, something in his voice that Tessa couldn't place. He admired the Institute for a few more moments before turning back to his Directorate. Justin Ayo straightened up, expectant of what Shaun was to say next. "This leaves us in a precarious situation where the future of the Institute is in question, teetering on the edge of disaster. No one has seemed capable of replacing me… Until now." Shaun's dark eyes lingered on Justin for a few moments, before he turned his attention to the freckled blonde woman. "Mother, would you accept the position of Director after my death?"

Before Tessa could speak the others were, Justin slamming his hands on the table as he protested, "You can't be serious!" Shaun arched a brow at him. "She's an outsider, a wastelander- she's not even a scientist!"

"Actually," Tessa spat as she turned in her chair, "I am."

"What you cook some chems in a shanty on the surface?" Justin sneered, making Tessa bristle. "That's not the same!"

"Science is science, regardless of the type, and no that is not _why_ I'm a scientist."

"Mother," Shaun interrupted, "you needn't defend yourself. Perhaps you aren't a scientist like those in the Institute, but you certainly are no idiot." He then glared at Justin who shrank back into his seat. "But what we need is not just another scientist, we have plenty of those that is all we are. We need instead, a leader. Something I know you're quite good at, General."

Tessa stiffened, looking into eyes that were near identical to Nate's. "Shaun-"

"It's okay Mother, I know all about the Minutemen, Ayo keeps tabs on the surface as is his duties. You've caused quite a stir up there."

"I was trying to find you," she said, "I did everything I could to get to you."

"Such as rebuild the Minutemen and join the Brotherhood of Steel?"

She gave a rueful smile. "Can't always get things right."

Shaun returned the smile, hands clasped behind his back. "However I do believe our Brotherhood problem is well taken care of, isn't it Ayo?"

The dark coat clad man gave a nod, still glaring hate at Tessa. "Correct, one month ago the Prydwen was destroyed by who we suspect to be the Railroad, though if so they've done well to keep us from confirming it. Our scouts also reported that the Brotherhood attacked several locations, to include your mother's own surface home, an old church, and a few other settlements under her protection. Additionally, the Brotherhood's main outpost, a police station, was attacked by a large group shortly before the Prydwen's destruction."

"They weren't very happy I assisted you at Mass Fusion," explained Tessa as the rest of the Directorate gave her questioning looks. "Seeing as I used to be a knight."

"I'm glad that is behind us then," said Shaun, "do they continue to be a threat?"

"Without the Prydwen, as well as eighty percent of their Boston based personnel to include their upper leadership, the Brotherhood of Steel has been effectively crippled. What remains are scavengers who desperately protect what they have left, and have increased attacks to any they see. Seemingly, they've become little more than technologically capable raiders." Tessa averted her gaze, thinking on what they'd become, what she'd made them into. To think she'd once hoped they'd be able to work with the Minutemen.

Shaun gave a small smile, nodding his head. "Excellent. And the Railroad?"

There was an air of silence, only broken by Madison as she cleared her throat. "Are you sure you wish to discuss that here? Now?" She glanced to Tessa who scowled, they were suspicious of her.

"If my Mother is to be the Director after I pass, she needs to know this as much as I," replied Shaun, gesturing for them to speak. "War is near to breaking with our enemies. Surely with Mother's control of the Minutemen she can convince them not to fight us, as it would be their folly." Tessa gave a nod. "But the Railroad is the ever-present thorn in our side. We have nearly crushed them time and time again but they are a cancer that can only be destroyed with the most exact and surgical of operations." Tessa saddened at the choice of words.

Sighing, Justin gave the next report. "We believe the Railroad and Brotherhood were involved in some of that fighting, it is unclear if they were destroyed as well. The old church my coursers investigated were clearly a safehouse, if not the headquarters for the vermin."

"Surely they're connected," suggested Madison, glancing at Tessa warily once more, "the Brotherhood going after your mother and then the Railroad."

Tessa scowled. "They're not," she denied, "we all know the Brotherhood of Steel is anti-synth, the Railroad is pro-synth. They're going to come to odds."

"I used to work with them," Madison snarled back, rising to her feet and loomed towards Tessa. "I know how they operate. They wouldn't wage war on two fronts unless they were connected." She glanced to Shaun, but he did not remark on her outburst and so she remained standing.

"How long ago was that?" Tessa replied briskly, "because I guarantee they've changed. Did they use to take children into danger to teach them? Did they spit hate and prejudice to anyone that wasn't like them? Did they think themselves better than 'civilians' just because they wore some power armor or had military training instead of wasteland style? The Brotherhood was a steaming pile of filth that needed to go, so they did."

"Did you destroy them?" Piped Allie.

"Yes."

"How?" Demanded Madison, anger on her voice.

"I made allies as I sought out my son," Tessa explained curtly, not wanting them to ask for fine details. "Many of which owed me favors or are willing to die for me. Some of them nearly did. Plus, having been part of the Brotherhood I knew the Prydwen well, knew exactly where to plant some bombs to blow it up."

Shaun gave a small smile, nodding his head. "You never cease to impress Mother. Finding your way into the Institute, acquiring us the final component we needed for our nuclear reactor, defeating the Brotherhood virtually on your own, not to mention your other feats on the surface. Does nothing stop you?"

Tessa returned the smile. "Death."

With an amused laugh, Shaun straightened up. "I know your objections Ayo, but does anyone else disagree with my mother's appointment?"

The remaining heads glanced between one another, Allie frowning with thought while Madison rolled her eyes and retook her seat. Clayton seemed decided, and spoke up. "No."

Tessa blinked. "Really?"

"Yes. I've seen how you are in the Institute, you're not some simpleton. You might think and act differently than us, but unlike others I believe this is actually for the best."

"Why?" Questioned Shaun.

Clayton cleared his throat. "Admittedly, when my scientists protested your growing involvement I was in agreement with them. You're an outsider, you don't know what life is like here or our struggles. I thought if anything you would be another Kellogg, a tool for us to use." He shook his head. "But instead you're going to be our new Director. You handle situations vastly different than us, where we would use punishment, you used mercy. I didn't think anyone but Father could've convinced them to stand down, yet you proved me wrong. If we are to survive, we must evolve. If we never find the reason to, an outside force to drive us, we will stagnate, wither away and die."

"Don't you think you're being a bit dramatic?" Accused Madison.

"I'm being honest. Father has done amazing things but no one here possesses his drive. What you've done and seen on the surface might just be what we need. We can't redefine mankind if we've never seen it!"

"I've seen it!" Protested Justin.

"Through photos and cameras, through the eyes of your spies and coursers but never yourself," Clayton easily replied, "so I agree with Director Tessa Grey."

The smile he gave her made guilt fill her body, but she couldn't let her grateful smile falter. "Good to know at least one of you sees the bigger picture," remarked Shaun, glancing between the other three heads. "Anyone else?"

Allie gave a nod. "I'll follow you," she vowed, "I saw you handle crisis in Mass Fusion. You also knew what we were doing, not just wide eyed in shock at all the technology. You're no idiot."

Tessa smiled at her, playing the part so well. This was a true opportunity, perhaps they wouldn't have to fight the Institute after all if she was the one in charge. She was sure Desdemona would prefer that over risking agents trying to destroy the technologically superior power. Looking at the scientists with her, Tessa momentarily thought of Danse. She was tired of killing people she knew, and trusted her.

"Well then," Shaun said with a smile, "I believe that is all. Mother, would you wait a moment? I'd like to discuss what to expect as Director. Everyone else, dismissed." The Directorate rose in unison, Clayton and Allie giving reassuring looks to their to-be director while Ayo stormed out furiously. Madison lingered, looking at Shaun with wide eyes. "Yes?" He inquired, arching a brow.

"No-nothing," she yelped, skittering out after the others.

Frowning after her, Shaun turned back to his mother. "I noticed you didn't say yes, though the others seem not to have."

"It's just… a lot to take in," replied Tessa, scratching behind her head. "I imagine that's how you felt when you were chosen to be the next director."

"Not at all," he said, sitting back down and Tessa followed suit.

"Are you sure about this?" Tessa asked, staring into dark eyes. "I mean, that meeting just goes to show how much the Institute resents me. How am I supposed to lead a divided people?"

"They're always divided, no matter what I do, or you do, they will be divided. It's their way, always bickering over something," Shaun's words were laced with frustration, "I'm afraid you'll never have a moment of peace as Director. It will be your job to keep peace between them, and lead the Institute towards its future."

Tessa sighed with understanding. "Being the General of the Minutemen usually means I'm having to fix somebody else's problems."

"Why do you lead them?" Shaun inquired, "The surfacer savages."

"They're not savages," she retorted, "they're people whose ancestors were unlucky to not end up somewhere safe when the bombs dropped. I know you were too young to remember what it was like, but things weren't right back then, just like how they aren't now. Nowhere was safe, not even Vault 111." The memory of the cryopod closing filled her mind, practically able to feel the cold bite as she watched her husband and child across from her, the alarmed thought that something was amiss filling her all too late. "If only we'd realized we'd been lied to."

Shaun reached over and took hold of one of her hands, pulling Tessa from her memories. "We can't dwell on the past," he replied, "we can only look forward to the future."

"Right, right, sorry."

"It's alright, I can only imagine what it was like to actually remember it."

Tessa averted her gaze, the weight in her chest growing. "Shaun-"

"I'm sorry," Shaun cut her off, forcing her to look back at him. "I know you've been through a lot looking for me, that you just wanted to save me. That knowledge is what allows me to forgive you for everything you've done against me."

"The Brotherhood was a one time thing," she defended softly, "and you can't expect me to seriously let innocent people get hurt when I can save them can you?"

"Is it because you couldn't save Father, or me?"

She blinked, trying to process his simple question. Only on a few occasions did she stop and examine what she did, it just felt natural for her to try to help others. Why wouldn't or shouldn't she attempt to assist those who needed her? Was it because she couldn't save her loved ones? Tessa scowled at the introspective thoughts, shaking her head as if to clear them away but they lingered like heavy stones, questioning her every action.

"Maybe? I just… The world before was so very different and yet the same. Cruelty, violence, horrific sciences, they were rampant then and they're rampant now. But there's also kindness, determination, a certain beauty to the people who carry on. I mean, there's people who live in Fenway Park now! It's so strange that everywhere I look I can see what used to be, see the intact buildings and hear the people. It's not gone, it lingers like ghosts."

"So you miss what used to be?"

"Of course, but I miss the people more than anything. I miss Nate, so so much."

"What about Piper and Curie?"

The blonde woman stiffened, looking at her son with wide eyes. Of course he knew about them, they were with her everywhere she went. Yet to hear him utter their names sent a chill down her spine. "I can miss him and love them both," she whispered.

"How long did you wait until you started to fall for Piper?"

"It's not something you choose," she growled defensively, "your heart does what it wants."

"Like fall for two separate people?"

Tessa scowled. "I don't expect you to understand, but it's perfectly normal."

He stared at her for a few long moments, the cutting edge to his gaze reminding her of doctors with patients who they suspected were not being totally honest with them. The superior assumption of moral righteousness, it was maddening. "Are you so sure of that?"

"Shaun, I was married to your father for five years. Nothing and no one will ever replace him. Piper and Curie, they gave me hope and love. They're what kept me moving to find you. I nearly gave up many times over, feeling like I'd never find you, that I was against impossible odds. Without them I'd never have found the strength to overcome what I did."

Long breaths of silence passed between them, Tessa willing him to understand, to not be upset that she'd moved on from his father, to be happy she'd found love again not once but twice. "If you say so, he was collateral after all. His death was sad, true, but unimportant in the grand scheme, " he replied simply, Tessa feeling that familiar ball of rage flicker inside of her at his words. She knew he did not know his father, that he couldn't feel for him what he did, but to dismiss his death outright? It made her want to scream. "I take it you'd want to bring them with you?"

"Bring them?"

"If you become Director you're going to have to cut off most every tie to the surface. Keep only what's an asset to you, such as your Minutemen. Perhaps you could turn them into a puppet of the Institute, just like our several spies. Everything else must go."

"I'll be in charge, can't I decide what I do and where I go?"

Shaun gave a small smirk. "You would think, but you have to be present to lead."

Tessa sighed. "Right, of course. Is it alright if I think about this? There's… a lot to consider."

"If you need time then take whatever you need," he agreed, "just do inform me of your decision before I pass on would you?" It seemed a joke but it fell flat. "I would like to ask you a few more things, if that's alright with you."

Giving a shaky breath, Tessa nodded. "By all means."

Shaun glanced toward the door, as if assuring himself it was shut and no one could hear them as he spoke. "What is your honest opinion on synths? Don't just give me some rhetoric or smooth lie to fit in. You're going to decide the future of the Institute, which includes the synths."

Tessa's heart stopped for a moment, a part of her knowing he'd ask her such a question and yet it seemed to terrifyingly sudden. What could she dare say to him, what could she dare risk to reveal? "Well, my thoughts haven't changed much from when I first got here," she began slowly, allowing herself time to think. "They seem real enough."

"Ah, but they're not. They do not age, they have no childhood or defining personalities. They simply are," countered Shaun.

"But I've met synths," she replied, "all sorts, all generations, while I was searching for you. I came across one with two humans who wanted to kill him once they'd found out he was a synth. Just because he was synth, when he'd spent months with them, living with them, just as human as them. What made him any different?"

Shaun narrowed his eyes slightly. "The fact that it was created here, programmed and given a job that it escaped from."

She gritted her teeth with a hint of frustration, she'd known he'd say something like that and yet it still upset some part of her deep within. "Why did you make them?" She questioned, hoping to turn the tables and go on the offensive.

"I didn't, I was used to make them remember?"

"You decided to continue, you perfected it, you're their _father._ So why?"

Shaun didn't miss a beat on his response, as if he'd prepared it for just that very moment. "The Commonwealth is full of irradiated, mutated, damaged humans, there is nothing pure or positive left up there. Down here in the Institute, we have a healthier stock of genetics, we might not be completely free of the effects of radiation but we're nowhere near as twisted as those above. Synths allow us to have the labor force we need to further build the Institute, to venture in the dangers of the surface and are expendable."

"You wanted slaves," accused Tessa.

"Is it slavery if they are not human? Is it slavery to create a car to drive or an oven to cook your food? No, they are machines, complicated and life-like, but they are machines meant to better the life of humanity."

He was so sure in his response it drove Tessa mad, but she bit her tongue before she could say anything he'd deem treasonous. "I suppose so," she said softly. "Is there anything else?"

Rising to his feet, Shaun gestured to the window. "You don't have to agree with me," he replied, "few scientists ever agree with another completely. It's good, the debate, the discord that keeps us from stagnating. Clayton was correct, we need some force to keep us adapting. I believe that you," he looked back at her, "could be that force."

"I don't think I could lead them like you," confessed Tessa honestly.

"Don't then, forge your own path for the Institute."

Tessa blinked, staring at him with wide eyes. _How much else does he know?_ She wondered. "I need time to think," she said, turning away from him. He gave an understanding nod, and allowed her to depart. The automatic door opened loudly, and Tessa stepped out into the hall where Madison Li was waiting. She said nothing to her, instead brushing past the tall woman and already speaking to Shaun. The door shut behind her, but Tessa could still make out their voices muffled as they might be.

"Are you sure?" Tessa heard her say, "about this? She's-"

"I know," Shaun replied in a soft voice that was almost impossible to detect. "But she's our only hope."

"Surely we could find someone else, someone that's not so risky!"

"We both know I'm decided on this. She's the one we need, else we've wasted nearly fifteen years of our lives."

"I know how much you've put into her but-"

"Enough Li, there is no second guessing. This is the path we've chosen."

"Yes… Director." The sound of footsteps made Tessa jump, and she darted down the winding stairs before Madison could exit the room. Tessa didn't stop running until she was in the cafeteria, struggling to catch her breath. Her mind was jumping with thoughts as she tried to process what she'd just heard. She hadn't considered how much time Shaun might've put into making her Director.

Had it been his plan from the moment he'd awoken her or long before?

A synth bumped her, carrying a broom and apologizing as he started to sweep the floor near her. A scientist was eyeing her oddly for running into the area. Her skin prickled as more and more she realized people had taken notice of her. She needed to go home, she needed to think. Tessa rushed as casually as she could to the elevator in the center of the Atrium, gasping in breaths of air as the transparent door closed around her and begun to lift. Shaun was still standing in the window, watching as she ascended to the relay room.

He wore a sad smile.

* * *

 **AN: And so begins the next journey for Tessa and our various Fallout characters! This has been a story I've worked on for quite a while, but didn't want to undertake it with my much larger story "At Dawn's Light" still ongoing. After a bit of a break to recharge from writing, it's time to continue! If you haven't read "Questions of Allegiance" I'd highly suggest you do, as well as the smaller stories "Lucky" and "Chase the Bad Dreams Away". Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear your thoughts as we set off!**


	2. Dear Hearts and Gentle People

The rush of energy as Tessa materialized a few streets from Diamond City was one she quite enjoyed. Every fiber of her being was energized, lighting coursing through her veins as a blue light radiated from her for a few milliseconds before it was as if she'd been there all along. Pulling off her Institute coat, she discarded it in an old mailbox, intending on picking it up later when it wouldn't make people panic at the sight of her. Stretching her arms overhead, Tessa squinted up at the desolate buildings with their torn down walls and crumbling ruins of Boston. A sigh escaped her as she recalled the bright lights and hum of life as cars ran and people moved along the streets. No matter how hard she tried not to, she walked with ghosts, they whispered in her ears and ignored her, unaware of the intruder into their memories.

She hated being alone.

Silence let the ghosts in, invited them like moths to a lonely flame. There was a reason she rarely traveled by herself. How she yearned for the sound of Dogmeat's paws on the broken asphalt, his excited barks and protective growls. For a half a second she'd thought she'd heard Cait's snarky laughter, straining to catch it again. Entertaining the wishful thoughts brought more, MacCready boasting about some shot he'd made. Nick called him out on his obvious lie, Preston siding with the synth detective while Piper told some story to Curie who cooed with interest, Codsworth's jets a soft burning ambiance to their chatter. She missed them so much.

It had been a long month of working for Shaun in the Institute, of cementing their trust in her so she might free the thirteen synths in one fell swoop and eliminate their enemy. With luck, they'd be able to get out much more than those original thirteen, but Tessa's faith was starting to falter in such things. She struggled with holding onto the hope Piper and Curie fostered within her, picturing just how soon she'd see them again.

The only one among her friends she'd seen at all was Deacon, assisting her with maintaining her cover and meeting up at a few locations when she was on the surface running a job for the Institute. That was of course, after he'd recovered from his injures in the fight against the Brotherhood of Steel. His uncanny ability to disguise himself was the only thing making it possible for her to talk with him, each time looking as if she spoke with someone entirely new.

Traditional dead drops were far too risky, Tessa certain someone from the Institute was watching her, and leaving a cryptic message in an old box under a car had too much potential for someone else to come back behind her. So she'd only seen the one man, asking him to pass along messages to her friends and loved ones. He'd brought her a few back, Curie had baked her cookies once even, but mostly they were words of encouragement of orders from Desdemona. She'd fed the Institute misinformation on a few occasions, keeping synths safe as they were escorted to new safehouses. Tessa had no doubt that misinformation had earned some of the mistrust she'd been faced with by the Directorate.

Heart rising as she realized she was at those rusted old gates, Tessa entered Diamond City. The familiar sights and sounds were a comfort, having not seen them in so long. The brilliant red and green colors that dominated Diamond City was like a breath of fresh air, a stark contrast to the muted browns and dead greens of the Commonwealth. Nat was barking off about the paper as always, giving Tessa an excited wave upon seeing her. She pointed to the Power Noodles stand in the center of the marketplace, cupping her mouth with her other hand and shouted. "Over there!" Green eyes followed where she gestured, and Tessa's heart nearly stopped in her chest.

Sitting with their backs to her was MacCready and Cait, bumping elbows and laughing to each other, oblivious to their returned friend. MacCready gave Cait a wry grin, trying to steal her noodles when he clearly had a whole bowl to himself still. The fist fighter smacked his chopsticks away, fiercely scowling in warning, snarling something at him Tessa assumed was a curse-ridden threat. He stuck his tongue out, defensively holding his bowl and shaking his head as Cait attempted to return the favor.

Suddenly, Cait noticed Tessa slowly approaching and dropped her chopsticks, not caring that they clattered on the dirt below as she ignored MacCready and jumped from the stool. "Hey Cait, how've-" Tessa's words were cut short by the redheaded woman, Cait nearly tackling her as she pulled her into a fierce hug.

"Ya crazy sod! A whole fucking month?" She pulled back, furious and relieved both at the same time, Tessa wasn't sure if she was going to kiss her or punch her. "Where the hell have ya been!"

Tessa gave a wary smile, holding her hands up defensively as Cait released her, arms crossed and huffing. "You know where," she replied carefully, glancing around at the busy marketplace. Some people were watching, familiar faces putting Tessa at ease. At least here her skin didn't crawl so much like she was being watched, even still she scanned the crowd.

MacCready jogged over to them, far more enthusiastically pulling Tessa in a hug. "Good to see you Boss!" He laughed, giving her a strong clap on the shoulder as he pulled back. "Free at last! Did you… learn anything?" Crooked teeth were shown in a grin, dark blue eyes alight with mischief. "I mean you were in the-"

Tessa shoved him away with a chuckle, cutting him short. "It's great to see you both," Tessa agreed, smiling at them, "I've missed you guys, all of you."

Cait gave a halfhearted huff, her anger fading swiftly. "We're getting drunk now right? To celebrate?"

"God I wish I could," Tessa replied with a wistful shake of her head, "but there's a lot going on still. Afterwards for sure."

MacCready frowned some, glancing around expectantly. "What's up Grey? We got something we should be worried about?" His hand twitched to the pistol on his hip.

"Maybe… I'll tell you in a bit. Right now I need to see Piper and Curie."

"They should be home," he informed her, "Piper brought Curie some lunch."

Tessa started to walk towards her home across the marketplace, Cait retrieving her and MacCready's noodle bowls as she followed along. "How's she recovering?" She asked over her shoulder, brushing past the chem-shop and focusing on MacCready to keep her eyes off it as they walked by. Her skin crawled guiltily with memories.

MacCready gave an uncertain shrug. "Good I think, I'm no doctor but she seems alright. Doctor Sun checks on her once a week to make sure she's on track and he hasn't said anything otherwise… So I guess? Lucy always handled this kind of stuff," he muttered at the end.

"Good good," Tessa uttered, pausing at the door. She could see Curie beneath her, broken and bloodied as the rain fell, the twisted way her legs had been, the glint of bone and anguish upon her face. The moment had replayed itself in her head since it had happened, driving her on and yet weighing her down. She should've been able to protect her.

"They're not getting any younger," said Cait, urging Tessa and pulling her from the dreary thoughts.

Struggling with finding a response, Tessa turned the knob and entered her home. The smell of cleanliness was jarring as she stood in the living room. The coffee table was overrun with articles of paper, news clippings and discarded balls joined with empty nuka colas and cigarette butts. What Tessa was looking at however, was the brunet woman sitting among the chaos, a stunned expression upon her beautiful face. A tan man dressed sharply in a tuxedo, hat and all, was sitting besides her with a smirk. Resting at Piper's feet was Dogmeat, the hound jumping up the moment he saw her and rushing across to her, nearly knocking the woman over who was quick to sooth his excited barks with affection.

"Blue!"

"Hey Pipes," smiled Tessa with as much charm as she could while a dog rubbed against her.

"Nice seeing you Bullseye," the man said, Tessa struggling to remember who he was.

"Tango?" Questioned the blonde, Tango rising to his feet and giving a nod. She had to look down to meet his gaze, but he seemed quite confident despite his height. "What're you doing here?" Piper rushed around the coffee table, Tessa embracing her firmly, breathing in printer oil and cigarettes. "Missed you," she whispered into Piper's hair, kissing her brow next before the reporter pulled her into a passionate kiss, temporarily banishing the anxiety in the back of her mind that never quite left.

Hazel eyes that shone with love met relieved soft green ones, Tessa trying to memorize her face as if she hadn't done so a thousand times before. "I missed you too," she replied, cupping Tessa's face. "Are you okay? Why can you come home? Did something happen? Are you safe? Is the Institute taken care of?" She stepped back, asking questions far too quickly for Tessa to reply one at a time. Dogmeat whined as if he wanted to know also.

Tessa gave a soft chuckle, rubbing the dog's ears to keep him quiet. "Something big has happened, yes, and I'm okay for now. I'm afraid I don't have much time though. Tango, I need to talk to Desdemona immediately."

The Railroad agent gave a nod of his head. "Figured you'd say something like that, she actually sent me here to meet with you."

"Why not Deacon?"

"You can't always be meeting with some white dude can you?" He asked with that charming smile. "Also, I'm not _as_ mission critical right now, still important but… I've been here for three days waiting."

"What's going on?"

"We're ready."

Tessa stared at him, surely she misheard him. "Excuse me?"

"Des says it's time, we're moving on the Institute. All we need is for you to get us in."

"What the fuck? Right n-"

"Madame!" Tessa's words were cut off by Curie's voice, the synth being wheeled in by Nick Valentine, a smile upon both their faces. Floating along besides them was Codsworth, the robotic butler chiming a greeting only for it to be drowned out by Curie. "You are home!" Curie's legs were in casts, far better than the makeshift ones immediately following her injury. She wore a smile that brightened the room, reaching for her love as Nick pushed her closer in the wheelchair.

Staring at her for a few moments, Tessa could only see the rain and blood and pain, until she felt a hand on her shoulder and blinked at Piper who gestured towards Curie. Trying to push the painful memories away, Tessa knelt down and embraced her carefully, afraid of harming her, Dogmeat still trying to lick her face. When she pulled back, there were tears in Curie's eyes, the dog lapping them up with whines. "I have missed you so much," Curie said as she gently pushed Dogmeat away who at last settled down.

"Missed you too," she smiled, "thanks for those cookies, don't know how you baked them but they tasted amazing."

"Codsworth knew the recipe!" Curie replied excitedly, proud her gift was enjoyed, while Tessa gave the robot a smile.

"Maybe I shouldn't be surprised after all."

The butler easily replied, "My memory banks haven't corrupted yet Mum."

"Seems so, they were real good, thanks," Tessa replied, Codsworth humming in delight. "Nice seeing you Valentine, that last job go well?"

"So so," Nick shrugged, glowing yellow eyes settled on the woman who on occasion acted as his partner. "Nearly got blown up."

"Nick bits doesn't sound like something you wanna be," joked Tessa before refocusing on the task at hand. "Are we still at Imperial?" She looked at Tango, who nodded his head. "Alright, then I need to get there. The Institute is probably watching me pretty close right now though, something… big happened."

Piper frowned. "Like what? They're not suspicious are they?"

"Quite the opposite actually. They made me Director. I asked for some time to think, figured coming here was a safer bet than my usual meetups with Deacon. Especially since Shaun wants me to take those I care for with me because if I accept I can't leave."

Eyes widened and swears were uttered as the group tried to process what she'd just said. "Director?" Piper asked, "As in… the one in charge?"

"That… changes everything," Tango uttered, "We need to go, now. Desdemona will know what to do."

"To the safehouse? Is that smart?" Asked Nick. "You could lead them right to you."

Tango shrugged, "We need you there anyways, and that's where she'll be. Moving both of you somewhere else to meet would be too dangerous, ferrying messages will take too long."

"Hold up!" Cut in Cait, "If there's about to be a fight, we're coming with."

"Yeah, you're not leaving us out of this one," agreed MacCready.

"There might not be a fight though," Tessa argued, "if I become Director, maybe I can change them for the better. Stop the slavery, the abductions, all of it. Make them an actual honest to god good force in the Commonwealth. They think they're the future, and maybe they can be… but I'd have to be the one to make it so."

"And if Desdemona says you fight?"

"I'll try to convince her otherwise."

Uncertain looks were shared, Tango grimacing tightly before he spoke. "There is no changing the Institute, trust me. They're power hungry, believe themselves superior, nothing will make them ever accept that synths are even alive. We're nothing but slaves to them." The group blinked at him, Tango unphased by his admission as he continued on. "I get you want to do something good, reduce the loss of life, but they're not going to change, at least not in any of our lifetimes."

"Maybe if a synth was their leader," snickered MacCready.

"They would die before they let that happen."

Nick gave an agreeing grunt. "I don't remember much, or anything really, about the Institute but that matches what I've learned. Grey, do you think you could possibly change them? They've abducted people, replaced them with fakes, wiped out whole settlements, and that's just what we know."

Tessa felt all eyes fall upon her, her skin growing hot. She could hear voices, angry, and vengeful, screaming how she'd betrayed them, murdered them. Her breath came raggedly, struggling to escape her as her vision swirled with darkness for a moment and she had to steady herself on Nick, the old synth giving her a worried look as he held her upright. "I… I can't just kill them all," she said once she regained her bearings, "not again."

Piper frowned knowingly, a thickness filling the air. "But if you agree, and you leave… What- what happens here? With all of us?"

"Mum," Codsworth spoke up, "I'd of course be able to accompany you would I not? I'm sure a Director has need for a Mr Handy."

"I'll always need you Codsworth," she replied reassuringly. "Us relics have to stick together."

Codsworth made a noise, bobbing with relief. "Right we do."

Tessa then looked at her friends, eyes roaming over their hardened expressions, before her gaze settled on the one in the wheelchair. "I could take Curie, she'd be healed there for sure. They've got these crazy medicines Piper, you should see it," she said, thinking of all the good the Institute could do for her injured love. "I mean, they can make synths after all, I'm sure a pair of legs are nothing."

"Okay, Curie gets healed, but what if she doesn't want to stay there?"

"That's up to Curie," Tessa replied, "I'll be in charge, I could get her out if she wanted. I mean, the Directorate was skeptical about me but they trusted Father and he basically does whatever he wants. I'm sure I'd have to wait some time before I could leave but there's no way I'll let myself be trapped in a tomb underground… not again. Also I know you have Nat, we'll figure something out, we don't have to have all the answers now."

"Do they trust you?"

Tessa gave a shrug, "Some, two out of four at least."

"That's enough to rebel," said MacCready with an edge. "They might not even wait to do it either."

"I can win over the rest," she said confidently, "I mean, I did that with you guys didn't I?"

Cait rolled her eyes, MacCready snorting in response. "We didn't start off thinking we held destiny in our hands," she said, "pompous scientists, messing with what they have no right to. Not like I was given much choice either when ya had my contract. Getting me a cure for my… problem, sure made me like ya though."

"You paid me," MacCready said easily, "but you certainly got my loyalty when you helped me find a cure for Duncan and deal with those Gunners."

"Saving someone's life certainly is a quick way to make them trust you" Nick remarked, "and then working with you to find your son... Not to mention you helped me with Eddie, why wouldn't I believe in you?"

"You make it easy to follow you," Piper summarized, "but that's because we've fought by your side, we know who you are, what you've done. You've done so much good in this world, but they don't know you, and can never truly know you. We both know you'd never admit you were with the Railroad to them, so you'd constantly have to lie about who you are or what you've done."

Tessa averted her gaze. "I can lie, I'm pretty good at it."

"But you also hate it. Would you really want that to be the rest of your life?" Piper pushed.

"So I should just kill them all?"

"Fuck yeah!" Said Cait a bit too loudly, cracking her knuckles for emphasis. "They've been around for how long and haven't made themselves look good once. It's not yer job to save them, and they've got a mighty long list of sins to pay for."

Nick tipped his hat. "She's not wrong, they've done some real twisted stuff. Maybe a bullet in the head is the kind of justice they deserve, like Eddie. Some evils can't be contained or corrected, they can only be exterminated like the disease they are."

Tessa looked at them, attempting to figure out exactly what they thought. "Curie, you don't want all that knowledge to go to waste do you?" She asked, hoping to find someone who might agree with her. They couldn't all be eager for complete and total destruction could they?

Curie was frowning, brow furrowed deep with thought. "Non, I would not," she said slowly, "but knowledge does not mean they are innocent. Perhaps you can reform them Madame, perhaps not… I just, I want you safe. I want you to come home after all this." A lump formed in Tessa's throat at that. "You leave for a very long time and I miss being with you. If my legs were not so damaged I would be at your side but-" she cut herself off, self-pity and frustration in her voice that was so uncharacteristic for Curie it hurt to hear. "I cannot. Whatever you must do, I just want you to come home, alive and well."

Tessa took hold of one of Curie's hands, Piper moving behind her and placing a hand on Curie's shoulder. The pair looked at each other, sorrow in their hearts at the pain Curie endured. Again Dogmeat whined, laying his head in Curie's lap who stroked him with a bitter smile. The guilt Tessa felt over Curie's injury resurged once more, and she averted her gaze from Piper's hazel eyes. She had to do something for Curie, she had to find someone who could heal her.

"Look," Tango spoke up, "this won't matter if Desdemona says no. We need to get there, soon. Everybody is waiting. I imagine you lot remember the way there?"

"Never been," Nick replied simply.

"Right… Best thing we can do is go in small groups. I don't like the idea of so many people going to the Imperial at once, could tip any number of our enemies off but… the more guns in the battle the better. There won't be any time to fetch you if we're going to fight. Disguises, separate routes, delays, that's what we're looking at."

"Codsworth, I need you and Dogmeat to keep Curie safe," Tessa said.

"Affirmative Mum, she'll be well taken care of until you return," he replied, Dogmeat jumping around as if to express his agreement. "Do be careful, please."

"I will, but trouble has a thing for finding me," she replied, trying to force a laugh but it fell flat. "As for everybody else… Tango could go with Nick, Cait and MacCready, Piper and myself. We absolutely cannot be identified, if the Institute finds the new headquarters, especially right now, we're fucked."

Piper gave a pout and tugged on her hat, "I'll go get some different clothes."

"Not just different clothes," Tango said, "wigs also. You'll need to carry different weapons, act differently, hide in plain sight with some traders for a while… you need to be someone else."

Tessa smirked. "You sound like Deacon."

"He's not the only one good at this sort of stuff," he replied with an easy smile.

"Why the tux then?"

"Looks good?" Tango shrugged, "Also, doesn't look like someone trying to hide."

She wrinkled her nose with thought, debating his point before shrugging, he certainly didn't look like a man hiding from a technologically advanced underground faction who kidnapped and replaced people. "Alright then, what do you recommend?" Tessa asked.

The man gave a smile. "Bullseye, you're going to look like someone entirely new when I'm done with you. Best pack your armor where you can carry it, because you most certainly will not be wearing it there. We'll need to cover up that Pipboy too." Brown eyes roamed over the rag tag group before him, and Tango gave a sigh as he looked at Nick. "Maybe you will have more time to discuss… This'll take a while and we only get one shot." Nick scoffed. "You're handsome Detective, but we need to go incognito remember? Come on, we're all going to Fallons." He began to shove them out the door, Dogmeat trotting along after them while Codsworth remained at Curie's side.

Tessa managed to escape, crossing over to Curie and leaning down to kiss her. "I promise, I'll come back, whatever happens."

"I will hold you to that," she replied, gripping Tessa's collar to deepen the kiss. "You would not want to make a girl a promise you cannot keep."

Tessa smiled ruefully. "No, I wouldn't."

"I love you," Curie whispered, Tessa lingering near her lips.

"I love you too."

* * *

 **AN: Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts as things start to pick up!**


	3. Freedom Talks

The Imperial Safehouse was far more organized than Tessa last remembered it. Before it had been chaos as agents skittered about preparing for a fight they hadn't expected, coping with the loss of five agents and the wounding of many more. There was no settling into a new home, the Imperial Safehouse was home now. This time, they were prepared. The chaos was controlled, everything happening as it should when it should like a well oiled machine. Tessa had to admit her impress, compared to the ramshackled, tight spaces of the catacombs, it felt more like a proper headquarters now.

There was the usual guards they had to pass upon entry, Valor among them keeping watch at the reinforced windows. He nodded briskly to Tessa as she entered, Tessa almost thinking she spotted new scars on his muscular form. He'd certainly been an excellent fighter in the attack on the Brotherhood outpost, but she recalled Danse throwing him through a wall, a power armored boot stomping on his chest. How the man survived that she had no idea.

Further in was Tessa's friends, the others having left before Piper and she. Nick was speaking with Tinker Tom, the overalls wearing man shoving one gun after another to him, Nick politely rejecting each until a sleek pistol was produced and garnered the detective's interest. Tessa stared at the young boy at Tom's side, no longer dressed in scribe armor but instead a grey long sleeve shirt accented by a red scarf. The blonde boy caught Tessa looking at him, and stiffened in alarm before running away into the depths of the safehouse. Tessa sighed as she watched him disappear, knowing Sam would probably never be able to stand the sight of her after what she'd done.

Honestly, she couldn't blame him.

Someone shouted angrily, Cait drawing Tessa's attention to where the redheaded woman argued with MacCready, Cait fuming about something. MacCready frowned at her, placing a hand on her shoulder but she gave a huff and shoved it off, snarling something in a quieter tone while the sniper kept a neutral expression. Tessa sighed once more, hoping it wasn't something serious, and made her way over to intervene when Piper cleared her throat with a shake of her head. "They do that sometimes," Piper said as the shouting died down, MacCready getting Cait to calm some. "Things have been… tense with you gone."

"Sorry to stress you guys out," Tessa apologized, Piper taking off a red wig and shaking her dark locks free. Tessa lingered on the sight, before Piper gave her a knowing look, arching a brow as Tessa flushed.

Piper smiled comfortingly up at her and kissed her cheek. "It's fine. Let's just finish this, one way or another." The edge in her voice offset her smile, Tessa easily able to tell the reporter was terrified.

"It'll all be okay," whispered Tessa as she returned the kiss.

Piper gave her a look that Tessa knew meant she was trying to keep a brave face. "I hope so."

Then Tessa caught sight of the woman she needed to talk to most of all. Desdemona looked older almost, exhaustion pulling at her face while she poured herself over the plans on the stage. It still acted as the old war table had, only someone had done a bit of work on it to make it a bit more efficient. The catwalk down to the end of the stage now possessed a wall that blocked it off, maps and schematics nailed to it so Desdemona didn't have to keep hunching over it. The pole had also been removed, no longer blocking the view and taking up precious space. P.A.M. was muttering off variables as always, Drummer Boy jotting them down besides her and adding the results of her ramblings to a large stack Desdemona seemed loath to review.

Making her way over to Desdemona, Tessa tried to swallow her nerves as the assembled agents began to move out of her way, letting her easily get to the ginger haired leader. "Bullseye," Desdemona said with a smile of relief, "good to see you." Something about the way she spoke was enough to tell Tessa Desdemona was more than a little happy to see her.

"You too," she replied, uncomfortable with so many ears around them. "Did Tango tell you anything? He beat me back after all." She looked at where the short man sat, changed into Railroad issue armor now and cleaning a gun. The remarkably short asian woman from before, Whisper, gave a polite nod from where she sat besides him, working on a sniper rifle. MacCready walked over from where Cait was now sharpening her deathclaw gauntlet, Piper talking softly with the brawler who frowned deeply. He asked the agent a few things and then began to maintain his own sniper rifle with her, Whisper not saying a word. Tango instead sparked up a conversation, chatting animatedly with MacCready as they each worked.

"Yeah, he did," Desdemona said as she straightened up, pushing away from the papers that Tessa recognized as schematics of the Institute. "I need to finish running the numbers with P.A.M. though, I want to know all our options before we commit."

"Glad to hear we're not just disregarding it," Tessa replied, the worry she'd carried that Desdemona would refuse to even consider a slower, less destructive route evaporating.

Desdemona took a long drag from her cigarette. "I wasn't a fan of what we did either," she said as she met Tessa's gaze. "What I made you do. I want to lose as few lives as possible, so yes, I'll consider it. But if it isn't viable… Well we'll see." Tessa frowned. "Look, you can make your case when P.A.M. is done. I need to process the hard facts first."

Tessa went to argue, but she didn't want to push Desdemona. "Alright. What should I do in the meantime?"

"Assist your friends, Tom wants to make sure they're ready to fight. Considering all they've done for us I'll be sure they're as protected as they can be."

"Thanks," Tessa said earnestly, Desdemona shrugging simply and taking another drag.

"They're good people, I'll treat them as such." With that she returned to planning, asking P.A.M. questions to which the modified assaultron near instantly replied. As she walked away, Tessa caught her inquiring how much longer the thirteen synths could hide in the the Institute.

Before she could hear the response, someone clapped her shoulder and Tessa jumped around to see a sunglass wearing friend with a mischievous smile. "There she is! The Railroad's prodigal child!"

"I'm not a child," argued Tessa as Deacon began to lead her towards a group of agents away from the main center of the action, checking ammo and weapons. She ducked under his arm, trying not to smirk at him. "Nice to see you without a weird getup," she remarked, admiring his bald head.

Deacon gave a shrug. "Gonna need a helmet later, hair would just get in the way."

"How's the side?" Tessa asked more seriously as they moved around a pair of chatting agents, one complaining that they just wanted to get the fighting over with. Tessa frowned in response.

Deacon winced a bit, one hand subconsciously going to the side he'd been hurt. "Honestly?"

"For once?"

The smirk returned. "It hurt, a lot. Lost a whole rib! But Carrington got me fixed up, I can fight if that's what you're worried about."

"You sure?" Tessa forced him to meet her gaze behind his glasses.

"Yeah," he vowed, "now stop looking at me like that, I swear you're worse than Desdemona." With a roll of green eyes, Tessa complied, and looked at the agents Deacon had guided her to. "Bullseye, meet the folks that are going with us. Dez called in everybody that wasn't on a job, we're hitting them with everything we've got." Deacon lowered his voice as he continued, Tessa tensing anxiously. "You're sorta a big deal to them, the woman who's given us the chance to finally beat the Institute and all- so try to give them hope we can actually win and smile hero!"

Keeping her frustration concealed, Tessa gave an encouraging smile as she took in the six agents before her, all of which were differing in appearances and heights. "Riptide," Deacon introduced a massively tall dark skin man with several claw like scars upon him. "He's real good in a fight, you can trust him to watch your back easy."

"Like Valor?" She questioned.

"Yeah, honestly those two could be brothers."

Riptide smirked, a rumbly voice replying, "We are brothers Deacon, brothers-in-arms."

"Right," Deacon smirked, gesturing to an average height women with sandy cornrows and dark skin. "Cliff, she's great at infiltrating, can climb just about anything."

Cliff arched a brow, scanning Tessa over. "So you're the one who took my MiLA jobs?"

"Heh- you can have them back," Tessa joked, earning a smile in return. "Going that high makes me dizzy, don't know how you do it."

"Don't look down."

"I'll try to keep that in mind," Tessa replied, looking at a short, young ginger girl with a missing chunk of her left ear and burn marks across her face. "Hi," she said, holding a hand out. She looked familiar, more than Tessa simply seeing her in passing before but she couldn't quite place it.

"Hi," replied the agent, placing a crate of ammo down and shaking her hand, "they call me Pipsqueak."

"Her brother Digit died in the Brotherhood attack," Deacon whispered in Tessa's ear.

Deflating some, and realizing why she recognized the girl, Tessa frowned. "Sorry… about your brother. I only spoke with him a few times but he seemed like a good man," Tessa said sincerely, remembering the nervous agent. He'd been nearly as paranoid as Tinker Tom, just without the crazy.

She gave a bitter smile. "Well we're gonna make sure the Railroad, and everything he did for it, matters." She faltered for a moment, the courage she clearly possessed overwhelmed with the reality just out of reach. "You really think we can do it right?"

Tessa gave a firm nod. "I wouldn't be here if I didn't would I? Whatever we do, I'm sure it'll be successful. Desdemona is planning this, and with P.A.M. and Tom's help I'm sure it'll be foolproof."

"Whatever we do?" Questioned a green haired pale man. "I thought we were blowing them up, saying bye to the devil!"

"Viper," Deacon said swiftly, "we do what Desdemona says."

"Which is free the synths," Tessa said, "however we do it that's what we're going to achieve. Freedom. We've all suffered for this cause, and it's about to finally come to an end. We just have to trust in each other, and Desdemona, and I'm sure we'll win."

The six agents blinked at her, a few looking genuinely impressed with her. "Maybe you weren't full of shit this time," a short dark skinned agent Tessa couldn't quite figure out if they were a man or a woman said, "she actually sounds like a hero."

"Would I lie to you Rabbit?" Deacon smiled, lowering his sunglasses as he winked.

"Always."

Tessa gave a toothy grin, jabbing Deacon's good side with her elbow. He swatted her away with a frown. "I'm wounded, I am nothing but honest!" Instantly disagreements were thrown up by the assembled agents. Tessa's grin widened as Pipsqueak remarked on Deacon's known deceptive nature. Only one person didn't join in the banter, a taller rugged looking man reviewing a clipboard besides Rabbit.

"Who might you be?" Tessa inquired, the man looking at her with hardened eyes.

"Daniel, I'm just a tourist."

"Tourist?" It felt like a lifetime since she'd been called that. "Well, I'm glad you're here. If we've got a fight ahead of us we'll need every hand we can get. Desdemona is really calling in everybody though isn't she?"

"We're gonna need everybody we can get," Deacon agreed, "attacking the nest isn't exactly the wisest of choices."

"But it's our only one," said Riptide.

"Not entirely," uttered Tessa, Rabbit eyeing her curiously but she cleared her throat. There was no need getting their hopes up that they might not have to risk their lives if Desdemona was just going to shoot her down. She'd thought long on the options before her on the walk over, wondering if she really could lie to so many people for so long, and not just the Institute either.

If she became Director she'd no doubt have to manipulate the Minutemen. As much as she spent time away from the main hub of the Minutemen, only venturing to Sanctuary or Castle every so often, she wholeheartedly believed in their goal, their dream of a safe and united Commonwealth. To deceive them as well, when she already had in order to infiltrate the Institute, felt wrong to her. If she resigned they'd have no one to keep them out of the Institute's path. As much faith she possessed in Preston as her lieutenant, he was no general. Then again, what made her one?

The sound of agitated voices drew Tessa back to the conversation at hand, Rabbit squinting up at her with an arched brow while others looked at her cautiously. "Bullseye you okay?" Deacon asked softly, a hand finding its way to her shoulder.

"Ah sorry, guess I drifted off there," she apologized with a flush, Viper rolling his eyes and giving a huff. "What were we talking about?"

Deacon's hand lingered for a few moments before he gave a smile, acting as if nothing had even happened. "Riptide was saying we should have enough ammo for the battle to come, especially if we loot any fusion cells off the enemy."

"Are we using Tom's railway rifles?"

"Unfortunately we blew through most of that ammo in our fights with the Brotherhood," said Pipsqueak, frowning with memory. "We already had a low stock, Tom, Digit and Fixer just got them operational so we hadn't built up a supply yet. Combined with how heavy they are and our targets being much smaller than BoS issued power armor, we're sticking to a more traditional arsenal."

"Ah, most unfortunate," Tessa replied, "I quite liked using that gun."

"There'll be another time," shrugged Cliff. "Instead we've got bullets and lasers, most of the energy weapons are repurposed Institute stuff. A few of these have some fun modifications." She tapped a crate at her feet, Tessa suspecting it held the very weapons she spoke of. "The older synths might not bleed like new ones, but they disintegrate like anything else."

Tessa gave a nod, inspecting the crates of weapons before her now. Each one was marked by their contents, Daniel seeming quite keen on making sure their contents were accurate. She lingered on one with grenades inside, hopeful that whoever was throwing them had a good arm. "Where did all this come from? I don't remember us having a wall of weapons last time I was in here."

Deacon grinned with mischief. "Lots of shady deals went on," he said, "in back alleys and hotel rooms."

"I doubt it was that glamorous," drawled Tessa. "It does seem quite a lot has changed in just a month." She cast her gaze to where her friends were, wondering what all had changed between them.

Deacon gave a nod. "Yeah, it has. I think you should go get armored up, Dez will probably want to roll out with the mission, whatever she decides, as soon as it's planned."

"And if she decides not to fight and I have to change back?"

"Eh, better safe than sorry," Deacon replied easily. "Grab one of the private rooms, I'm sure nobody will mind."

"Alright alright," Tessa grumbled, nodding her head to the other Railroad agents. Their banter continued as they worked, Tessa walking away and half listening as Cliff accused Deacon of stealing one of Tango's hats. That was another thing the blonde had missed, the unity of the Railroad. They were family, a weird, ever changing family but they were. Some people she got along with better than others, but they were all people she was willing to fight alongside and die for. The bubble of grief that built inside her, the thought that they'd no doubt feel betrayed by her if she became Director, threatened to swallow her whole by the time Tessa got up the stairs and into a room.

Dropping her travel pack with a heavy sigh, Tessa collapsed onto an old mattress, rubbing her eyes to try and soothe some of her mental pain. "The hell did you get yourself into Tessa?" She uttered aloud, staring up at the damaged ceiling.

"A world of trouble," came Piper's voice, Tessa jostling upright to see her love standing in the doorway, a sad look upon her face. "Need some help getting changed?"

"Uh, sure. Thanks." Tessa stood up as Piper began to rummage through her pack, pulling out a black set of combat issue armor. The arms and legs certainly had a bit more protection than her torso, Tessa once remarking about how she disliked how restricting the heavier type of combat armor was and opting instead for the enhanced limb protection. While she began to strip out of the clothing Tango had bought her to disguise herself with, Piper laid the armor out on the bed and took off her own disguise.

Green eyes lingered on her exposed shoulders and the faint freckles she possessed, heat filling Tessa as she was reminded of how much she'd missed Piper. The hungry look she got back was enough to tell her Piper felt the same. The gap between them closed in an instant, Tessa pulling the shorter woman closer as their lips came together. Piper tugged on her collar, hissing desperately as Tessa's hands lowered to her rump. The reporter gave a soft noise as Tessa kissed her neck, legs shaking against her. Tessa paused, opening her eyes slightly to check on Piper. Hazel eyes glistened with tears, Piper struggling with containing her emotions as they embraced.

"Piper?"

"Don't leave me Blue," whispered Piper, her grip tightening on Tessa's collar as she pressed her forehead against Tessa's chest. "Please, please don't leave me."

"I don't want to."

"Then don't!" Piper looked back up at her. "I know we couldn't talk about it on the way over here, but it's all I've thought about. You going there to fight or lead. Either way I could lose you, one of which is for sure."

"Pipes… this doesn't have to be an end. You could come with me!"

Piper gritted her teeth, shaking her head. "Tessa I don't think I could just drop everything and move to the Institute, I have Nat to think about. She'd never be able to live there."

"Well I can visit you then!"

"No you couldn't!" Piper stepped away, looking at the armor laid out on the bed. It was the same set Tessa used to wear before she found a way into the Institute. It proudly wore a star upon its chest, to the right of it a railway sign Piper didn't know the meaning of, and on the left the emblem of the Minutemen. She could see why Tessa had stopped wearing it once she'd gone undercover, far too obvious of who she affiliated with, even if most couldn't recognize the Railroad marking. "I miss the days when we were chasing the faintest of leads. When we didn't have to debate about the fate of the Commonwealth and strangers."

Tessa sighed, eyes lingering on every marr upon the armor, remembering how she acquired each scar. "So do I. When I worried if I'd find my son not if he'd catch onto what I'm doing to destroy everything he'd ever worked for." She took Piper's hand, intertwining their fingers one at a time. "When things were simpler."

"I can't lose you," Piper confessed, "you being gone all this time just constantly reminds me that I can't bear the thought of a world without you. Now you're going away again, back to that Institute! They're taking you after all, just like I thought they would!"

"I don't know what else I can do that won't end up with people dead," Tessa said, voice wavering for a moment. "You know I can't just commit an atrocity… again. How can you say I should just kill them?"

"Because they need to answer for what they've done," Piper said fiercely, "for all the people they've killed. The Commonwealth will never be able to trust them, I promise you, no matter what you do. They'll hate you, fight you, try to destroy you… it's not the answer. You have the Minutemen, you can use them to heal the Commonwealth instead if you're so determined on doing that."

"But all the technology, the Institute is decades if not a whole century ahead of anything else out here. We could use that to better the Commonwealth! Clean food and water, medicines, armor and weaponry-"

"We'll get there eventually," Piper interrupted, shaking her head, "without them. No one will accept their help you have to realize it Blue."

"But Curie, they could heal her."

"She'll also eventually get better. She and I talked about this, the last thing she wants is to lose you. When you went into the Institute the first time I honestly didn't think you'd come back," Piper replied, unable to look at Tessa. "Then you started to vanish more, lying to us about what you were doing, going on these missions for the Railroad and Institute. I honestly thought we were losing you until that night with Danse, until I finally knew what was going on! Then the chems…"

"I'm better now!" Tessa said earnestly. "I went to Vault 95 and took the treatment just like Cait."

"And seeing you go through that pain… Cait might've survived but I was so scared you wouldn't. I'm glad you're clean don't get me wrong, but I was so afraid that I'd lose you… just like I'm about to now."

Tessa's heart ached as she moved closer to Piper, enveloping the space between them. "Piper, I don't know what you want. I have to do this, I have to finish this I don't have a choice. It's going to happen no matter what."

"Can't you give someone else access into the Institute? Someone else could let them in," argued Piper.

"The relay is highly advanced, I'm sure it can detect if I'm me or someone else. Maybe I could steal a relay grenade but… I'd have to go into the Institute to get that."

With a grimace, Piper turned her back to her tall lover. "So it has to be you?"

"Yes. It does."

"Do you want to lead the Institute?"

"If it saves people's lives, then shouldn't I? We won't have to risk all these agents, our friends, you!" She reached for Piper, but stopped short. She wasn't looking at her, Tessa's heart wrenching in her chest. She wanted to turn her around, force her to meet her gaze, but she knew better.

"But instead you can be condemned to a fate of deception?"

"Don't I deserve it after everything I've done?"

"You mean killing the Brotherhood?"

"I murdered them Piper," she hissed with self-hate, hands balling into fists. "I burned them alive, blasted them from the sky and shot them with my own gun. I should pay for my crimes too."

Long moments of silence passed between them before Piper spoke, her voice hardly above a whisper. "You should take Curie."

"What?"

"Curie… she should go with you. If you're sure they can heal her, then take her with you. It's up to her if she stays after, but if she wants to then okay. We both know she could live without me more than you. Maybe if she's there you can actually find some happiness instead of drown in your sorrow."

Tessa frowned heavily, turning her around. "Are you… what are you-" Tears ran down her cheeks, Piper crying softly. "What are you saying?"

"If you lead the Institute, you'll need to be focused. Curie healing will be a distraction but a worthwhile one. You can't really operate well on your own either, you'd lose your mind in a week truly trapped there."

"You won't come?"

"I can't Blue," she said firmly, "and you know why already."

"So we… are you… breaking up with me?"

Piper made a noise, shaking her head. "Not exactly. It's just… I think for all of us it's best if we end this if you go down that path."

"Piper… we- but-" Tessa struggled with forming words to expression the pain and confusion she felt. "What happened to not running?"

"I'm not running," Piper replied with a rasp of anger, shaking her head and stepping towards Tessa. "But you two will be leaving me, maybe forever. It's not fair to expect me to wait every day for you to come back when you won't. I love you, both of you, so deeply it hurts to think of this but what other option is there? Do you think it's noble? Sacrificing yourself like this? You don't owe the Commonwealth anything! You don't have to be the hero! What makes you work yourself to the bone for this place? I love that you're a good person Blue but this? This is insane! You're making a deal with the devil!"

Tessa struggled to speak, a thousand thoughts running through her mind as he tried to figure out what to say or do. She couldn't lose Piper, the thought of her leaving her like a dagger to the heart. _Why do I do this?_ She gritted her teeth, closing her eyes tight. Was it because of Nate and Shaun? Her failures weighing like heavy stones that pushed her down the river to what came next? "I don't know Piper," she jaggedly said, "I just want to save people! Is that so wrong?"

"No, it's beautiful," Piper said earnestly, "it's what made me fall for you, the sheer goodness of who you are. I just can't understand it sometimes."

"So what do you want? What do you expect?"

"I want you," she swore, "and if you sacrifice yourself to lead the Institute I can't see a future with us in it. We will never see each other again, we will never be able to even talk! How can there be an us if you're going to disappear?"

Tessa stared down at her, mouth moving silently for a few moments before she found her voice. "I'd make sure I could see you," she vowed.

"Blue you can't promise that," softly sighed Piper. "And if you did you'd have to lie to me about what you're doing I'm sure of it, because you know I wouldn't be able to sit by. It's not like you'll be able to change everything overnight, it'll take months if not years to make the Institute good. Not to mention you'll never be free from this lie if you choose them. Choosing them is a life sentence, you'll trap yourself down there."

Tessa swallowed dryly, closing her eyes as she thought hard. Opening them with a sigh, she softly asked, "But if we fight?"

Piper smiled, looking up at her love and intertwining their fingers. "Well then the thing I'd worry about most is if you come home. But unlike last time I'll be there to make sure you do." Tessa stared at her, tightening their clasped hands. She could see Nate in front of her when she looked at Piper, a ghost hovering between them for a few painful moments before he vanished with a blink.

 _Not again._

"I know it's selfish of me to ask, but I'm afraid you're not just thinking of joining the Institute because of your desire to save people. You blame yourself for what happened, you think you don't deserve happiness…" She spoke softly, the space between them fragile. Tessa made no response, face hard stone as she stared into those hazel eyes framed by a dusting of freckles. Hadn't she noticed them before? "You're wrong."

"I should be held accountable for what I did," she said painfully.

Piper placed a hand on Tessa's chest, only her grey tank between her fingers and the scar Danse had left her. "We all did things that are terrible, we agreed to what the plan was. If you're going to be held accountable, we all will, and we will do it together. Share the burden."

Tessa stiffened, the promise she'd given a month ago echoing in her ears. Bowing her head, she answered softly, "Okay, let's do this."

"Really?" Piper gasped as Tessa released her hand and began to armor up.

"I said it before and I'll say it again, you and Curie are all that matters to me now. I am not losing you." Tessa pulled on the torso piece, fingers tugging at straps to fix it in place. In a blink Piper assisted her, only taking a few short minutes to get it all on her. Once she was all geared up Tessa assisted Piper in changing, pulling on a similar set of combat armor Tessa had made for her a long while ago. The moment they were both fully armored they embraced, ignoring how uncomfortable their armor made it. "We'll make it out of this, and then we'll get back to Curie. I promise," promised Tessa.

"Good," Piper replied before she pulled her into a more passionate kiss. The sound of someone clearing their throat by the doorway broke them apart, the pair turning to see Desdemona waiting.

"Hope I'm not interrupting," Desdemona said.

"We were just finishing up," Tessa replied, "what did you decide?"

Desdemona entered the room, the seriousness on her face a stark contrast to the turmoil of Tessa's mind. "We have to attack," she said firmly, "I know you want to avoid bloodshed but we have no other option. We can't get those thirteen synths out otherwise, and if they're discovered you'll be exposed. It doesn't matter how determined you are to correct the Institute they will kill you if they find out the truth. We aren't prepared for that deep of a mission, we can't maintain your cover for even a month longer let alone years!"

Tessa was silent for a few moments, looking to Piper who frowned softly. "Are you sure?"

"There's a reason we needed to strike now," Desdemona replied, "we're dangerously close to being discovered. Deacon has had to kill two coursers who tracked him down, and if they've found him… they might've seen you with him."

"Two coursers?" Tessa balked, killing one had been hard enough and that was after he'd fought through a whole building of Gunners. "He managed that on his own?"

"Well, they weren't at the same time, but yes. That's not something he'd lie about either so I know it's the truth." She took a drag from a cigarette, taking a moment to buy herself some time with Tessa, expecting some passionate retort. They often had differing views on how to carry out the mission, though ultimately Tessa would defer to Desdemona's judgement. "Do you have anything to say that might convince me otherwise? Some secret you haven't shared with us?" There was almost a hint of optimism in Desdemona's voice, enough to tell Tessa that she truly did not want to lead her people into a battle that would more than likely obliterate them all.

"No," Tessa replied, "I could only try to appeal to your morality."

Desdemona's eyes narrowed. "I'm doing this _because_ of my morality," she said curtly. "Everything I've ever done was because of my beliefs. Synths, living people, enslaved!"

"I know," said Tessa, "I just wish we didn't have to kill so many people to achieve their freedom."

"Then why are you dressed for a fight?"

"Because I know it's the best option," Tessa replied, "for the Railroad, and for those I love," she looked at Piper, "and maybe with the Minutemen I can fix the Commonwealth instead of using the Institute. The people will certainly trust those who've been defending them rather than kidnapping them."

Desdemona blinked, the hardness leaving her face some. "Thank god," she sighed, "I was really worried I'd get punched again."

Flushing a bit, Tessa gave an awkward smile. "Sorry about that, by the way."

Desdemona stepped closer and held out a hand. "It's in the past, what matters now is stopping the Institute."

Giving her hand a firm shake, Tessa nodded her head. "Absolutely. I only ask one thing."

The leader arched a brow expectantly. "Usually negotiations take place before the handshake… but what?"

"If anyone surrenders they are allowed to escape, synth and scientist alike. They have families in there, children just like before. We have to let them go if they don't want to fight, they've never known anything else."

"They could become a problem later," Desdemona argued.

"I won't do this otherwise, I can't have all of their souls haunting me as well as the Brotherhood of Steel's."

A frown crept firmly across Desdemona's face, before she made a noise and gave a nod of her head. "Okay, deal. Anyone who gives up is free to go."

"Good," Tessa said with relief, the tension practically melting from her shoulders.

"Now follow me downstairs so I can explain the plan to everyone," Desdemona ordered, turning on her heels and the pair followed her out.

"You know one day we're going to have to answer for everything we've done," Tessa commented, Desdemona taking a drag from her cigarette as she walked.

"Today's not that day."

The babble of the main floor turned to silence as they walked back into it, Tessa quickly picking out her companions who seemed relieved at the sight of her in armor. They themselves now dressed a bit more appropriately for a battle, even Cait opted for something more protective than her usual bare armed style. Desdemona stepped onto the stage, casting her gaze across the assembled agents and tourists. They looked back at her with reverence almost.

"We all know why we're here," she said powerfully, "we all know what's about to happen. Years of fighting, of skulking underground where no one could see us, of losing friends and loved ones, of trying to do what's right- finally is about to come to an end. We have what we need to destroy the Institute, to end their tyranny once and for all. Bullseye has created for us an opportunity unlike ever before, a way into the Institute!" Voices of approval rose, Valor giving Tessa a firm clap on the back. She flushed at all the attention, but Desdemona quickly regained it, as if she'd never even lost it.

"From this moment on we will no longer fear the wrath of the Institute or their countless spies. We will stand proud and shout our names into the heavens. No one will ever question if we exist because today we make history!" She punched a fist into the air, cheers rising all around once more. "We have fought for every living being, struggled and climbed back from the brink time and time again. On this day we make every sacrifice worth it! On this day we do what no one else can or will, save the synths! Freedom at last!"

Whoops and hollers made it nearly impossible to hear Desdemona as she continued. "With Bullseye's help, we will infiltrate the Institute using their own relay. Once you're inside Bullseye, we need you to bring the rest of us in. The coordinates will be the same as where you will depart, should be a simple activation."

Tessa gave a nod, she could do that.

"From there we will split into two groups, one to hold the relay room and the other to make their way through some old tunnels into the main room of the Institute. We can't go down the elevator for obvious reasons." She pointed at where on the schematics she spoke of, a greyed out area from much older plans. "Once in the main area we will push for the reactor. There we'll plant the bombs, which will be on a timer after activation. It is crucial that everyone pulls back to the relay room before detonation. We'll have thirty minutes exactly after to get out. Make sure you pick up a radio, we'll need to maintain communications at all times. Any questions?"

Before anyone could say a thing there was a flash of light outside, the few guards who'd stayed by the windows shouting in alarm. Then the nearby radio crackled, and a monotone voice Tessa recognized as the courser X6-88's filled the room. "Just one… Would Tessa Grey kindly come outside? I am afraid Father would like to talk."


	4. Fight or Flight

Silence.

There was no noise within the Imperial, no one daring to move or even breathe. Tessa stared at the boarded window, just barely able to see a shape on the other side through a crack between the wood. It didn't move. It stared back at her through grimy windows, waiting for her to do something. She hoped it was dark enough inside that he truly couldn't see her, but it felt as if X6-88 was looking into her soul.

After what felt like centuries, Tessa freed her gaze only to lock eyes with Desdemona. Tessa tried to see a plan, an idea- anything that could mean Desdemona knew what to do. Instead all she saw was fear. Lightning ran down her spine, Tessa looking next to those nearest to her. She was met with the same, the Railroad caught right in the Institute's web.

"Grey, please come outside," X6-88 said over the radio, "we have you surrounded. There is no escape. It would be best for you to obey."

Tessa slowly approached the radio, all eyes upon her, and keyed the mic. "How did you find me?" She asked, heart pounding in her chest.

"Your Pip-Boy is a computer, computers can be hacked."

"So you tracked me?"

"Listened too," he replied evenly, "we know everything Bullseye. There is nowhere you can run that we won't find you."

"Shit," somebody swore, a quiet murmur rising but it wasn't one of panic. Fear most certainly, but not mindless chaos. They couldn't afford to lash out like animals, they had to think. The air in the safehouse was suffocating, Tessa's chest burning as everything grew cold. "What're we going to do?" Somebody else questioned, only to be silenced by another.

Tessa stared at where she knew X6-88 was, wanting to reach through and punch his sunglasses off. Maybe if they attacked first they could take them by surprise? Tessa believed they truly wanted to take her alive, if only for her execution later, as they hadn't just opened fire on the safe house in the first place. They wanted her, perhaps she could use that to her advantage. "How do I know you're not lying?" She questioned without keying the radio.

"Because we're the Institute, the creators of life. A simple machine is nothing compared to what we can do," he replied, "I believe someone said something about not running earlier." Tessa's eyes widened and she swallowed dryly. Piper swore under her breath. They really were listening to her through the Pip-Boy. Grimacing, Tessa looked back at Desdemona.

She'd written something down, no one speaking now. _Hatch behind bar. Keep him talking._ It read, Desdemona pointing and looking around at the agents and tourists. They moved slowly, wary of how many were out there. The guards remained by the windows, Valor among them once more, aiming at however many coursers were outside. Desdemona hadn't moved just yet, watching the others inch to the escape tunnel. "So what, I should come outside and surrender?" She questioned aloud, not bothering with the radio. "Is that what you want?"

"It is what Father wants," X6-88 confirmed, "he wishes to speak to you."

"In front of a firing squad more like," she growled, "I've been surrounded before, only this time I'm not alone."

"By how many?" He questioned in a flat tone. "Five? Ten? Twenty?" With each number there was another flash of light, Tessa's stomach flopping as Valor hissed out that there was more of them. "You know how many of us there are Grey," he said, "it is foolish to fight."

Tessa locked eyes with Desdemona, she was frowning heavily but there was confidence in her eyes. She knew something. If they fought it would be hard, impossible perhaps, but Tessa refused to just give up on them. "You'll kill everyone here," she argued, "why would I give them up?"

"Because we will spare you and your friends… for now."

Cait swore faintly, making Tessa look at them. She was scowling, fists clenched at her side and deathclaw gauntlet on. MacCready had his back to her, watching the other side, sniper rifle ready to shoot the first Institute goon he had a clean shot at. Nick was closer to Tinker Tom, the new pistol the mechanic had given him brandished as he waited for the fight they all knew was coming. Piper swallowed dryly, right next to Tessa and no matter how brave she tried to look Tessa knew just how terrified she was. Nudging her lover with her elbow, Tessa tried to discreetly motion for her friends to move towards the escape hatch.

Piper shook her head adamantly, intertwining their fingers and staring into green eyes. She didn't have to say the words for Tessa to understand, who could only sigh and relent. "But everyone else?" She asked.

"The thorn in our side? They will be removed at long last, we are most grateful for your help in finding them."

"I didn't find them for you," she replied sharply.

"Yet here we are."

Deacon was holding the hatch open as agents crawled through the tunnel, carrying weapons and ammo. Tessa had no idea where it lead, but she couldn't follow. Not with her Pip-Boy at least. Tessa spotted Whisper and Tango enter it, the tan man casting a worried look to Valor before vanishing, more and more following after. Pipsqueak was next, dragging a snarling Viper behind her. Cliff carried Sam on her back, the child too scared to even move with Daniel right behind them. Riptide remained by the windows with Valor, scarred faces turned to stone. Rabbit protectively stood by Deacon. Her friends inched towards it now, Tinker Tom unmoving from his workstation. Desdemona was besides him now, pistol in hand.

Just a little bit longer and maybe they could make it.

"If you've been listening to me, you know what I plan," she said, "all of it. You know I want to lead the Institute."

"Corrupt it you mean," he retorted, yet still his voice was devoid of emotion. "But yes, we know you've considered accepting Father's deal. That is the only reason you remain standing." Everyone but Tessa, Piper, Desdemona and Tinker Tom were out now. Her friends waited at the hatch, Nick waving her on. She started slowly towards them, heart pounding in her chest. Then what X6-88 said next froze her in place. "If you do not come out, everyone will die, including Curie."

"What?" She gasped. Piper's eyes widened besides her.

"Three seconds to come out Grey, or she's dead."

"Bullshit! You're lying!"

"Do you think we don't know where she is? We have her Grey, your robot on the other hand… He was loyal, now he is scrap. Do you need proof?"

"You're just trying to trick me!"

The sound of a holotape playing crackled over the radio, a familiar French voice crying in terror. "Mesdames… I- I do not know what is going on! These strangers, they have taken me! They killed Codsworth…" Her voice cracked as she continued. "Oh poor Codsworth… I do not know what to do, they say they will let me go if you come with them but I do not- AHH!" Her words pitched into a scream, the sound of electricity just louder than her cry. It lasted a terrible minute, before becoming labored breaths. "Please Mesdames… help me."

Red filled her vision, time twisting on itself for the woman as she tried to process what she'd heard. It felt as if she were in V.A.T.S. everything crawling as she pictured Curie in their hands, Codsworth discarded like trash. Her only friend left from the world before gone, reduced to scrap and cast aside. What of Dogmeat, was he alive or dead?

She had to save her, she had to make them pay for taking her, for hurting her. One after another Tessa pictured a course of action and saw it fail, running the possibilities through her mind. To fight was to die, to give up was to die. Nothing ended in anything but agonizing death for one or another if not all. At the core of all she saw was Curie, trapped and tortured, and in place of her lover Nate filled her vision once more, blood streaming from his heart before vanishing entirely.

 _I can't risk her,_ Tessa thought in agony, realizing the Institute had her just where they wanted. The red faded, Tessa taking deep breaths as she thought what Curie would want. She could find another way from inside, figure out how to save her and still defeat Shaun. She was sure of it. Tessa stepped forward, maybe she could talk Shaun into something else, she'd gotten much better with her words. She could lie, she was quite good at that now.

Piper didn't let go of her hand as she started forward, Tessa turning back to pleading hazel eyes. "I'm sorry," she said painfully, pulling her hand free. Piper covered her mouth to keep from crying after her. "Okay, I'll go, just don't hurt her or my friends."

The door opened up, X6-88 silhouetted like a grim reaper. He held out a hand. "Your cooperation will be rewarded," he said, voice colored at last with an emotion, smugness.

Then a bullet tore through his chest, X6-88 falling to his knees as blood splattered onto the ground. Before Tessa could blink, Desdemona shouted something at Tom and a shutter of metal dropped down over all the windows and door. The last thing she saw was the courser bloodily sneering up at her. Someone grabbed her by the collar, dragging Tessa into the escape tunnel.

The sound of laserfire overcame Tessa's shouts of protest, Deacon shutting the hatch behind them and enveloping them in darkness. A hand covered her mouth, muffling her fury, Cait dragging her away from the Imperial and down an old dugout tunnel. Their panicked steps echoed down the dirt corridor, an old prohibition tunnel perhaps. Tessa however didn't care about that as they fled, all she wanted was to break free, to fight. Biting MacCready's hand to free her mouth, she screamed, "They have Curie!" Tessa struggled against Cait who held her. Piper grabbed her Pip-Boy, fumbling with the lock as Tessa thrashed. It refused to budge, the screen flashing a security warning, threatening to shut down entirely if Piper continued. "Who fucking shot him? Why'd you do that I could have saved Curie!"

"Blue!"

Tessa snapped her attention to her lover, fear and anger swirling in hazel eyes. "Piper-" her words were cut short as the tunnel grew bright behind them, the hatch exploding and red filling her vision as laser fire sped towards them.

"That didn't take long!" Shouted MacCready, dropping low and firing a few shots with his sniper. Something fell, too dark for any of them to see clearly aside from the flash of crimson lasers. Desdemona shoved Cait and Tessa aside as a burst of lasers came directly at them. The ginger haired woman cried out in agony as she collapsed, her side smoking. Tinker Tom dove down besides her, injecting the Railroad leader with a stimpak and muttering words too fast and quiet to understand.

Tessa stumbled away, green eyes staring at Desdemona for a half second before Nick was blasted down with lasers, the detective synth leaning against a wooden support beam on the tunnel walls, a portion of his armor singed but he wasn't out of the fight just yet, returning fire with a snarky remark. Piper took cover best she could in the open corridor, pistol roaring her anger with every bullet. MacCready screamed as one of his hands was caught by a laser, smoke trailing off his fingers and he dropped the sniper. The darkness was illuminated with each bullet from his pistol, MacCready firing with his uninjured hand.

"Fucking hell!" Cait screamed, not even she was going to risk running at a wall of coursers. "The fuck do we do?"

"Run!" Ordered Tessa, returning fire with her hunting rifle that had been strapped to her back besides her shotgun. "Grab Dez and run!" Cait gave a mute nod, throwing the Railroad leader who made a soft noise over her shoulder and bolting down the tunnel as quickly as she could. Tinker Tom tossed a pair of grenades that erupted in green light, before following after Cait. For a few terrifying moments Tessa could see the coursers beyond the red dots in her vision, X6-88 at the head of a wall five wide, waiting patiently for the grenades to run their course, arcs of plasma ripping at everything and nothing.

It chilled Tessa to the bone.

The coursers were advancing like a wave, not running but still with an eerie speed, a solid wall of death encroaching. They were hunters coming for their prey, trapped between the walls of dirt and concrete. "We have to keep going!" Shouted Tessa as the grenades fizzled out, darkness engulfing them once more.

"Where the hell does this thing go!" Piper shouted, Deacon shaking his head and shooting back. "Right they can still hear us, shit."

"Just follow me!" The bald man ordered, retreating into the darkness as it turned sharply in one direction. Quickly they followed him, lasers just barely missing them. Cait wasn't far ahead of them, her furious swears and heavy breathing the only thing telling Tessa just where she was aside from her Pip-Boy. Tinker Tom's frantic voice mingled with hers, Tessa just able to catch him saying something about mines.

Tessa's eyes strained to make out any sort of light in the dirt tunnel, but all she saw was flashes of red that fortunately missed them. MacCready gave a snarky remark as he threw a fragmentation grenade behind them, Tessa just able to make out a red dot in the corner of her vision blink out. The tunnel around them gave an ominous shake, dirt and rocks falling loose. Tessa swallowed dryly at the thought of it collapsing on them. "And lose that Pip-Boy Bullseye!"

"When I have a fucking chance!" She shouted back, catching up to Nick, Piper right behind her. They ducked around another corner, metal joining the dirt and the stench of sewage filling the air. Water sloshed as they ran through old sewer tunnels, closed off and collapsed passageways giving them only one direction to run in. The armor she wore felt so heavy, practically dragging her down but she knew she couldn't stop running. The coursers would surely kill her now. "Who shot him?" She demanded. "Because I sure as fuck didn't ask you to! MacCready?"

The man grunted. "Come on, I wouldn't do something you didn't order me to Boss."

"I did," Nick rasped.

Tessa pivoted on her feet, slamming into the old synth and shoving him against the rusted pipes. "Why? You just risked Curie's life!" Someone pulled on her shoulder, Deacon urging they keep moving while Piper shot back behind them. The coursers were closing in, her friends forming a line to buy a bit of time and keep them at bay. There was an explosion, a laser grazed her hip but Tessa kept her eyes on the detective's glowing optics.

"They'd have killed us all the moment you were gone!" He barked back, trying to shove her off but she didn't budge. "You can't trust them!"

"You don't know that!"

"I sure as hell do!"

"If she's dead, if they killed her, it's on your head," she sneered. "I could have saved her."

"Don't delude yourself kid," he scoffed, "the moment you'd have taken his hand you were a goner just like the rest of us. They won't let you be their director now, you just plotted to blow them up! How would you even save her all by yourself? The plan's gone to shit!"

A burst of lasers narrowly missed them, Tessa averting her gaze just long enough to see the Coursers had stopped for now as Deacon tossed grenades, green energy explosions rather than fragmentation that would collapse the whole tunnel on top of them. He'd run out eventually though, and she hissed back at Nick, "I'd figure something out! I always do!"

Another laser grazed her, Tessa winced but she didn't move. MacCready shouted in frustration, but his words were incomprehensible behind the torrent of laserfire. "Then figure a way out of this one, because if you'd gone with them it'd all be over. Winging your way out of everything won't work, there's too much at stake here for a game of chance. Now let me go so we can get the hell out of here!" Nick snarled.

Stepping back, Tessa drew her pistol from her hip and fired rapidly at the mass of coursers. "We're not done talking about this," she growled. A bullet caught one in the head, a meaty noise signifying them collapsing into the ground. Then a trio of lasers burned into her chest, Tessa wincing as she imagined getting a scar on top of her existing one, and she started to move backwards, firing with gritted teeth. Nick fired with his own pistol besides her, Piper at her other side and MacCready pulling back with a limp.

"I'd imagine not," he replied briskly, Deacon leading them around another corner. The only thing that kept them from getting mowed down was how the sewage and tunnels and twisted, letting them shoot back blindly around a corner but prevented themselves from catching many lasers. Deacon took them up a ladder, pushing a manhole open and suddenly they were basked in light.

"Come on come on!" Deacon shouted as he held it open. Once they were all on the surface, Deacon slammed the manhole shut, pushing a button besides just inside it before the heavy lead fell into place. "Move!" They dashed across a broken street into an alleyway between old office buildings, the open river behind them, and then a deep whooshing noise followed. Tessa looked over her shoulder to see the manhole, with X6-88 coming out of it, explode into an inferno, burned leather and body parts mingling with the flames, splattering out across the street after sailing through the sky.

The courser slammed into the broken asphalt, legs gone and everything on his backside incinerated. Several more came climbing out of the escape tunnel, bodies aflame and limbs missing as they desperately tried to extinguish themselves, agonized cries raking through Tessa's mind. Some fell in searing heaps, flopping only a few more times before falling completely still. Others writhed about, crawling towards the river that seemed a continent away, trailing blood and flesh.

Tessa could only remember one other time she'd seen people burn like this, the memory practically replaying before her eyes only this time she could smell them. She could hear every agonised scream, every pop of burning flesh and the roar of fire, no vertibird to mask the brutality before her this time. The fire that burned wasn't just from one or even several mines, it must've ignited a fuel line, great columns of smoke billowing up into the sky.

It was too similar a sight.

She stopped running, her friends not looking back but she couldn't break eye contact with the only one still alive. His broken sunglasses revealed blue eyes that burned like the fire behind him, X6-88 grunting in agony as he began to drag himself towards her leaving thick lines of blood behind him. Tessa stepped towards him, stopping on a few inches from him. "I'm sorry," she apologized softly, the courser gurgling a response. X6-88 reached towards her, coughing blood, arm pitifully shaking before he lost the strength to even look up at her.

Dropping to a squat, Tessa offered him a syringe of med-x, the burned synth refusing it with another gurgle. Huffing, she injected him anyways, followed by a stimpak. Tessa then fished a pair of tourniquets out of one of the packs on her hips, applying them to a resisting X6-88, but she got them in place, staunching the flow of blood. "I didn't want so many lives to be lost. I thought, if I really couldn't turn the Institute around, surely the Directorate will try to kill me if they ever found the truth out. I'd hoped that just maybe, if we could take you by surprise we could reduce the amount of lives lost… on both sides. I'm so sorry you had to lose your's."

"I'm a synth," he managed painfully, the medicine granting him the ability to speak. "My life is nothing."

"That's where you're wrong, where the Institute is so fundamentally wrong." Tessa's voice dropped to a dangerous tone as she lifted her Pip-Boy up, green eyes flickering up to the burning hatch before returning to meet X6-88's slowly clouding blue gaze. "Shaun, I know you can hear me. I want to end this before more people lose their lives. You want to make the Commonwealth a better place? Prove it. Meet me in Sanctuary, in our home, and we'll talk about this. There'll be no Minutemen, no Railroad, no coursers, just you and me. No one else needs to die."

She paused for a moment, almost as if to allow herself time to think. She had to get this right. "If you harm Curie," Tessa said slowly, voice dropping with menace, "if you hurt her further in any way, I will destroy you. I don't care that you're my son, if you fucking hurt her again, I will tear you and everything you love apart bit by bit." Her eyes rose on the fires that burned, watching them crackle and inhaling charred flesh. "Everything you've worked for, everything you've built, will come tumbling down before your eyes until there is nothing but ash in its wake and your name will become an echo. The grand future you dream of for the Institute will be gone. There will be no redefining of mankind. I swear to fucking god Shaun, don't make a choice you'll regret. You know who I am, you know what I've done. You're a smart man, I'm sure you can figure out just how I'll destroy you if you make that one critical mistake. Leave her the fuck out of this."

She lowered the Pip-Boy, sucking in a breath of air and the courser made a noise, shaking his head slowly. Tessa unlatched the piece of tech, removing it for the first time in months since putting it on. The screen flashed a warning and she confirmed she really did want to remove it, the Vault Boy frowning before the screen turned dark. The HUD Tessa had seen for five months melted away, a painful bareness to the world around her as she blinked up at the cloudy sky.

The green bars that had always been in the corner of her vision had felt like an extension of herself, sometimes fading and other times screaming for her attention. Without her radar telling her which way she was looking Tessa felt disorientated, no skittering red or green bars that the Pip-Boy somehow figured were hostile or not. She had a number of guesses, chief among them being a field it radiated that picked up on emotional triggers or the sort, a sonar of some kind, but she'd never really know how it worked. It was one of the things she'd simply accepted, like robot men and irradiated giant bugs.

Somethings she wasn't meant to understand.

Tessa held the Pip-Boy carefully in her arms, her steps a little wobbly as she walked to where her companions awaited, handing it over to MacCready with a finger to her lips. She gestured to the notepad the reporter kept with her, Piper quick to give it, and scribbled down a few words. Tessa tore the page and handed it to the sniper who gave a nod. Deacon and MacCready began to walk away after the bald man scribbled a few directions down for them. Tessa watched them turn around a corner, a numbness in her chest spreading outwards as she then faced X6-88. She didn't look at Piper or Nick, all she saw was the synth.

She kicked him square in the jaw, the synth spitting blood on the ground and sneering up at her. "I see you're done pretending," he hissed out.

"Were you the one that took Curie?" She demanded, crouching by him. "Did you kill Codsworth? What'd you do to Dogmeat?" He gave no response. She punched him. "I swear to fucking god, if you hurt her more I'll tear you apart."

"Bit violent for a hero, don't you think?" He laughed between blood, unable to find the strength to move there on the ground. "If you think you can interrogate me, you're wasting your breath."

"I just wanted to free you," she said, "your brothers and sisters, a living people. You think you're nothing, that you aren't really alive or a real person? They've been lying to you since the day you were made."

"What you and I believe are two very different things," he managed, voice growing weak.

"Where do they have her?" She questioned, drawing her pistol and casually aiming it at his arm. He was silent, waiting patiently for death to take him. "Where did you take her." Still no answer. Gritting her teeth, fighting a part of her that said she should just put him out of his misery, Tessa pressed the muzzle to his limp arm. "It was you that took her, wasn't it? I've seen you following me before."

"Father didn't trust you… for good reason."

"Tell me this," she leaned close to him, voice a low growl that dripped with cruelty. She saw another not-so-human man there on the asphalt, with a scar and beard. Someone who'd taken her loved ones from her. "Is she alive?"

X6-88 gave a sneer, "I'm not telling you anything."

He screamed as the bullet tore through his arm, Tessa firing twice more. She could hear Piper gasp behind her, Nick muttering under his breath but she ignored them. Tessa applied a tourniquet to the arm, not letting him bleed out just yet. "Do you know what I did to the last person that took someone I loved from me?" She asked slowly, drawing the ripper she kept from her belt. X6-88's eyes widened a little at the sight. "I tore him apart…" She turned it on, the miniature chainsaw producing a loud roar.

The crack of gunfire from behind was the only warning Tessa had before X6-88 had a bullet between his eyes, the synth slumping completely as blood and brain matter exploded from his skull, covering Tessa. She stared at the corpse for a few terrible moments, before turning off the ripper and patting the burned courser down. Pulling a set of advanced looking orbs from one of his pockets, Tessa slowly rose to her feet. She looked at Nick and Piper, the detective still holding his pistol. "I wasn't going to do it," she said softly.

"Like hell you were!" Snapped Nick.

"I was just trying to scare him."

"I saw what you did to Kellogg," he crossed over to her, "I saw you get your revenge."

"I killed him," she snarled, "that's all."

"You cut his fucking head off!"

"Because we needed it!"

"We didn't know that then!"

"I was angry, I wasn't thinking I just wanted him dead!"

"Enough!" Piper stepped between them, looking from the enraged synth to her lover. "It's too dangerous to talk about this here, we need to meet up with the others."

"This is the second time you've jumped the gun," Tessa sneered at him, "literally!"

"I'm sorry that unlike everyone else I'm not on your payroll or between your legs."

"Shut up!" Piper shouted, "both of you!" Tessa blinked at her, catching the fear in her voice, wondering if it was because of her or the Institute. "We have to move, now. We can talk about this once we're safe, or safer, whatever." She looked down at X6-88, swallowing dryly. "Now let's go, okay!" Tessa moved slowly, Nick brushing past her and tilting his hat down. Tessa looked back over her shoulder, catching Piper staring at the courser for a few moments longer before kicking him and running to catch up.

The reporter averted her gaze, walking swiftly besides her. "We'll save her," Tessa said softly as they followed Deacon's instructions to the rendezvous. "I just wanted to know more on how."

Piper frowned softly. "A part of me wanted him to suffer more," she admitted, "but we can't become like them Tessa. We can't."

Sighing, running a hand through dirtied blonde hair, Tessa nodded. "Right, I'll try not to."

Angry hazel eyes stared up at Tessa. "Now let's get our girlfriend back."

Deacon's instructions were easy to follow, only taking a few minutes for them to figure out and traverse the streets of Boston. They'd come out a bit west of Charles View Amphitheater, the river on their north side easily guiding them down towards the bridge between the Fens and Cambridge, the large crumbling ruins of the Commonwealth Institute of Technology a looming figure across the waters. Tessa kept her eyes off it as they walked, each footfall the only noise amongst them. Nick pointedly keep his optics on what was ahead of them. Piper checked behind them as they walked, Tessa catching her staring at some alleyway suspiciously but otherwise nothing came at them.

What they did come across disturbed them, early generation synths scrapped alongside the roads, stuffed into the alleys to hide them. Blood coated cracked asphalt, and if they weren't wasn't the fresh stench and wetness to the stains Tessa might've mistaken them as the usual Commonwealth decor. They couldn't find any human bodies, giving Tessa a bit of hope that the Railroad hadn't been hurt too bad.

Eventually they arrived at their destination, a ramshackle between an old cafe and a clothing store, windows just as boarded up as the rest of the strip. Tessa knocked on it loudly, and after a minute it swung open. The bald agent met her gaze, sunglasses off with sorrow upon his face. It was jarring to see him without them, Tessa actually taking a moment to recognize him. "Come on," Deacon said softly as he checked down the street before gesturing the trio in after him. "We sent Cliff out with your Pip-Boy, just in case the Institute can track it when it's turned off. She's taking it to Sanctuary then ditching it," he informed Tessa as they he pulled back a half destroyed dresser, revealing another hidden cellar. Their steps down into it were quiet compared to the noises of agony inside. Tessa sucked in a breath of pungent air, bracing herself for what awaited in the darkness.

Lanterns were the only source of light in the damp, dark cellar, blood mingling with musky smells. Someone was crying, Dr. Carrington checking them over while Desdemona spoke to Tinker Tom and P.A.M. The robot answering Desdemona's questions, how long they had before they had to move, was louder than the muttering, fearful agents and tourists. There was hardly any room to walk, Tessa having to push agents out of the way. "Do we have a radio here?" She interrupted.

Desdemona's side was bandaged, burns from the lasers making her grimace as she turned to the blonde. Tessa was surprised to see her standing, let alone giving orders. "Yeah, why?"

"We have to attack," Tessa started, "I don't know if Shaun will actually show up at Sanctuary but he might still send troops there. That'll decrease their numbers at least a little."

"They'll be expecting us," Desdemona argued, "how would we even get in?"

"Tom, can you rebuild the relay? I know it's short notice but-"

"Don't need to," the man smiled, "the one at Mercer still works."

"How? Shaun told me they destroyed it after I used it, didn't want anyone else breaking in."

He laughed, "You think I don't know how to mask a signal? Sent them the coordinates to a fake, all they destroyed was a tin can with some computer parts."

Desdemona gave a thoughtful frown. "We don't know if it'll work a second time though, they probably increased their security. Not to mention we don't have a courser chip."

"We have a whole bunch of courser bodies to loot," suggested Deacon, hope filling blue eyes. He looked at Tessa. "X6-88's should still be intact."

Desdemona turned to Tinker Tom, who gave a nod. "I could decode it here, we've got the tech. Might need to use P.A.M. to help with the power though…" He scratched his chin before smiling. "We could use it to get her in and then let the rest of us in, similar enough to the original plan."

"Except they know we're coming for them," argued Desdemona.

"They're going to expect us to run underground," Tessa countered, "our biggest advantage was taking them by surprise and now that's gone. They think the Railroad will try to run, because we can't take them on in a direct fight. They know that, we know that, they'll use that against us. With their reactor built, they're only going to grow stronger. They'll perfect the synths, they'll make armies, they'll bleed us dry and then we'll be nothing but dust. We don't have a choice here, it's time to face them or die."

Desdemona scowled. "I know you want to save Curie, and I understand, but that doesn't mean we can pull this off. If we run we have a chance at regaining strength to defeat them one day, otherwise we're just throwing ourselves to our death. It was a slim chance before but now?" She gestured to those around them, wounded from the ambushes the Institute had waiting for them. "The Commonwealth is crawling with patrols, they want us dead and gone, even getting to Mercer Safehouse is a risk, it's halfway across Boston!"

"Unless we beat them those patrols will only grow in number," replied Tessa firmly, "give them time to build an army and they will. As for Curie, yes… I want to save her, but that's not just what I'm thinking about. If we don't do this now, everything we've ever done will be for nothing. If they've really been listening to me, I don't for how long, so many covers are blown. They know who Patriot is. They know why those synths went missing. They know _everything_ and our one strength, secrecy, is worthless. You said so yourself, the Institute nearly knows where we are, they just took out another headquarters!"

"We will endure," Desdemona said firmly, "we have to. Someone has to be there for the synths."

"They want us dead, all of us," Tessa continued, "you, me, Deacon- no one will be left if we run. That way waits a slow painful death, one of watching our numbers dwindle, friends captured, tortured, dying… or we can stand on our feet, and if we die at least it'll be fighting." She softened in her tone, placing a hand on Desdemona's shoulder. "We both know what Glory would want."

The redheaded woman took in a slow breath, letting her eyes run over the cellar filled with wounded agents. Most of their injuries were superficial, laser burns that would recover in time. Others were at death's door, Viper puking a red goop into a bucket, some internal organ vaporized and leaving a slow and painful death before him. Cait and MacCready were talking quietly besides Piper, consoling her over Curie most likely. Cait had a few new scratches among the chaos of scars and bruises that always speckled her freckled skin. Nick smoked a cigarette, muttering something to the others that only made them seem angrier.

Rabbit was watching them, dark green eyes wide with attention. Slowly did Tessa notice others looking to them, Whisper and Tango who wrapped bandages around Valor's fresh wounds sneaking glances in their direction. Daniel was checking weapons as before, Pipsqueak had stopped assisting him and was focused entirely on the leadership. Drummer Boy ran around helping Dr. Carrington who looked their way between patiently, sneaking looks himself as he went. Riptide, who guarded the door, was perhaps the only one not turning his attention to them.

Focusing back on Desdemona, Tessa suspected the burns on the leader would scar even, blooms of red where bandages didn't cover. The fact that Desdemona was even alive mystified her, perhaps she'd underestimated the ginger woman. A mental reminder that Desdemona had saved her from that attack made her dip her head. Even if they disagreed at times they were on the same side.

"I suppose I can't ask you to sacrifice your love," she said in an almost defeated tone.

"Honestly? No. I'll find a way to save her, somehow… though with you I'm less likely to die."

Desdemona cracked a smile, meeting Tessa's gaze. "I'd rather you didn't die," she conceded. "We don't have the men." Desdemona's hands balled into fists before a visible wave came over her, every bit of doubt and uncertainty pushed aside. She was the leader, she couldn't afford to show her fear, a part of Tessa admiring her ability to resolve herself. "Unless you can do something about it, General."

Smirking almost, Tessa looked at Tinker Tom. "I need that radio," she said, "the Institute is bigger than us. Saving synths might be our job, but the Institute hurts everyone. It's time the Commonwealth fought back."

* * *

 **AN: Sorry for the bit of a delay, I assisted with Hurricane Harvey relief for about three weeks, and in general struggled with writing this. I hope it was worth the wait though, and would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for reading!**


	5. Into The Fire

The Minutemen's motto was 'at a moment's notice', meaning they'd respond as quickly as possible to any threat. They were built on their rapid response, their ability to mobilize to protect the settlers of the Commonwealth. It was something that made them great. On that day, Tessa appreciated that fact more than anything else. Mercer was on the far western side of the Boston ruins, just before the river and by a set of train tracks that crossed north over the water. There weren't too many structures around, giving it a safe amount of isolation without being too far from the main hub of Boston.

It'd taken only a few hours to get the Minutemen to the safe house, Tessa giving cryptic codes and Deacon speaking over the radio to prevent the Institute from figuring out their location. Tinker Tom had been quite thorough in masking their signal, every precaution they could possibly make made. They couldn't afford to be cornered again.

They stood in loose formations before their general, talking idly between themselves as they awaited her address. They certainly wouldn't have won any drill competitions back in the day, in fact they'd probably have been a laughing stock for their sheer lack of military bearing, but the moment Tessa began to speak they grew silent and looked at her with such respect it was almost startling. Mercer Safehouse was packed from all the new arrivals, making it hot and smelly and Tessa nearly stumbled with the first words. She'd never made a speech like this, and the size of people before her was intimidating. Then she caught Piper's hazel eyes and found her nerve.

"Most of you know me as Tessa Grey, the General of the Minutemen," she started, standing on a crate so she might overlook the crowd. "But I am also called Bullseye, an agent of the Railroad." Murmurs rose among the Minutemen, but no one spoke loud enough for her to address them. "Yes, I have lied to you about my affiliations, but only with the intent of saving lives. I know many of you might not agree with the existence of synths, that you might find them a danger and rather they are destroyed. What I am asking of you today is not to save them, yes that will be a result of what we do but that is not what I'm asking you to fight for." She caught a few skeptical looks but pressed on.

"Instead, I am asking for you to fight the enemy that the Commonwealth has known for centuries. The one who has taken your loved ones, destroyed your homes and slaughtered your friends. I don't have to tell you what they've done to you, you already know." She met the gaze of Preston, one of her first friends in the Commonwealth. He smiled at her encouragingly. "If you don't want to fight, I understand. No one here will be forced to do what they don't want to. It's dangerous, the most dangerous thing I'll ever ask of you, but I have to because we have no other choice. If we don't do this now the Institute will win. It will be slow, a cancer that will rot away everything left within the world until all that's left is them and their vision of the future. But we can stop that, we can keep that possibility from ever coming to fruition. We can show the Institute that we're not so easily beaten. Today the Commonwealth fights back."

A few of the militia looked back and forth between one another, whispers rising as they debated, before Preston stepped up onto the crate and raised his laser musket above his head. "I'll follow you anywhere General." The voices rose in agreement, hands raised as they cheered and bellowed, vowing to fight for Tessa. The worry that she wouldn't be able to get them to listen melted away, a smile dawning her face and Tessa raised her fist in union. "Get ready! You all brought what you needed for a fight but double check now! If we're going to fight the Institute we need to be perfect!" Preston ordered, snapping into the commanding persona he'd developed over the past few months at Tessa's side.

"If anything happens to us," Tessa said quietly to Preston as the Minutemen moved, double checking their equipment and coordinating with the Railroad agents. Desdemona and Tinker Tom were by the relay, the young boy Sam helping Tom make some final adjustments to the high tech piece of machinery. "Shaw will take over."

"As planned," Preston replied, stepping off the crate and offering a hand to Tessa who took it with a small smile. "The Minutemen won't devolve into squabbling children like last time, we made sure of that."

"Are you sure you want to come with though?" Tessa asked, frowning, "I hadn't expected you to answer the call first."

Preston moved his hand to her shoulder, a soft smile to his face. "General… Tessa, how could I call myself a Minutemen let alone your friend if I didn't?"

Tessa pulled him into a hug, Preston blushing a bit as he returned it. When Tessa pulled back she wore a smile that was contrary to the storm within her, but she refused to show it. "Okay, let's do this then."

Walking over to the relay, her skin began to tingle the closer she got, blue energy jolting off tesla coils atop a circular coil hoisted by three support beams. Various wires, capacitors and generators were hooked up to the marvel of science, Tinker Tom typing furiously onto a wall of computers. Tessa admired the circuitry that twisted down the thick steel beams to the central pad, two more tesla coils bursting up from it. The memory of using it the first time, of watching her world dissolve into blue light as Piper witnessed her leave, felt like a distant dream now. She touched it tenderly, half afraid of breaking it, before turning to the man who'd get her through or tear her apart atom by atom.

"Is it ready?"

Tom held up a finger, hammering the keys of the computer before giving an enthusiastic nod. "Yeah! Just need to do one more thing! Sam gimmie that courser chip!" The blonde little boy darted across to another computer and pulled out an advanced hexagonal sphere with copper colored plugs on the bottom, shielded by a transparent casing, and handed it to Tinker Tom. The dark skinned mechanic typed almost too quickly for Tessa to even catch the lines of code that flashed across the dark screen, before a chirp was produced and Tom threw his hands up in jubilation. "Boom! We are locked in! Now I'm sure the Institute will notice this stray signal once we activate it so make sure you secure the relay room asap! Otherwise they'll track us back and I've done all I can to mask us but-"

"Don't worry," Tessa interrupted, drawing her shotgun. "Nobody'll come back behind me."

"Bullseye," Desdemona said thickly, "give them hell."

Nodding her head, Tessa stepped onto the platform, heart racing in her chest as she caught sight of everyone. Piper, Nick, Cait, MacCready, Deacon, Preston; they each stood as close as they safely could to the relay, watching her with worry and excitement. For a moment it felt like the last thing she'd see. "I love you," whispered Tessa, Piper smiling brokenly back. "For the Commonwealth! For the synths!" She screamed loudly, raising a fist, cries echoing in the safe house. Then Tinker Tom flipped the switch, a loud crack of electricity nearly burst her eardrums and her skin turned to fire. The image of her friends faded into electric chaos, and then she was gone.

* * *

"Who the hell just came through?"

"Is that- Oh shit!"

With a crack of gunfire Tessa pelted the closest scientist with lead, blood erupting from the multiple impact wounds as they collapsed to the formerly spotless floor. Tessa sneered at the three other scientists, wheeling her shotgun around and blasting them each before they could run for the elevator on the far side of the room. One ducked under the console of computers, Tessa's shot just grazing them and she dashed around it before they could hit a button to signal an alarm. The woman's face twisted into one of horror just before it became a mess of gore.

Lasers lanced Tessa's flank, making her grit her teeth and whirl on where a scientist lay, bleeding from his gut but not yet dead. Tessa rectified it with another crack of her shotgun. She blinked, they were all dead already, four corpses upon the grey floor, blood pooling out like puddles from rain. Her eyes settled on the sole survivor, Z1-14, who stared terror from the corner of the room where he'd safely been hidden. "Help me," she ordered, and the ally synth darted to the relay. Heart racing with adrenaline, Tessa joined him, typing away on the computers to bring in her friends.

Flashes of light came from the large, orange colored circular relay, Desdemona and Tinker Tom the first ones in. The overalls wearing man gave a brilliant smile, whooping in triumph as he darted over to the computer and practically shoved Tessa away. Tessa gritted her teeth as he made her stumble over the woman's corpse, and then turned to Desdemona who examined the room with a harsh gaze. "I expected more bodies," remarked the Railroad leader.

"Maybe they pulled their forces further inside?" Suggested Tessa, "or he actually took me up on that Sanctuary offer."

"Why let us in at all?" Desdemona replied. Before Tessa could respond the room became crowded, Cait bumping the woman with an eager grin, MacCready scoping the area over himself as he more carefully approached. Piper instantly placed a kiss upon Tessa's cheek, whispering her relief as Nick and Preston joined them. Desdemona signaled Deacon over, Rabbit practically at the man's hip as they approached. "The plan remains the same," Desdemona said firmly, "the elevator down is still too dangerous and even more so with them knowing we're coming. They'll no doubt have reinforced the old tunnels so we're going to have an even bigger fight ahead of us."

"Why not blow it up and force us through the elevator?" Inquired Nick.

"It'd trigger a cave in," Desdemona replied, checking that everyone was now inside the Institute, before raising her voice. "Everyone, you know where you're supposed to be so let's go!" There was no time to waste, the Institute was no doubt onto them already. Desdemona led the way, having memorized the schematics long ago, down near the elevator and to an old rusty door. It creaked open, revealing rusted walls and filthy corridors, the small army rushing down a set of stairs that threatened to give out beneath them and through a double door.

They bust into what almost looked like an old office, desks and scattered boxes on one side with a glassless window on the other. Desdemona pointed to a terminal on the wall just before a turn, Nick rushing forward and clacking away. There was a deep beeping noise as he got through and deactivated the turrets linked to it, and then the first lasers were fired. Nick hissed in frustration as he ducked back around to the entryway. "Through the window!" Ordered Desdemona, each Railroad and Minutemen lining up to blast the older generation synths guarding the lowered area, a curving catwalk leading to the dark, poorly lit room.

Tessa pressed herself against peeling wallpaper, the decay and ruin of the old tunnel almost like the pulling back of a curtain, no longer under the spell of the cleanliness and glamour of the Institute. Piper ducked besides her, smirking at Tessa as she readied herself. "You take me to the nicest of places!" She laughed, the edge in her voice making Tessa grimace.

"I'll take you somewhere real nice after all this!" She promised, Piper winking in response.

"I'll hold you to that!"

"Quit yer flirting!" Ordered Cait, sneering in frustration as she waited for a break in the gunfire for her to get closer. "There's a fight to be had!"

"They never do!" Replied MacCready with a laugh, shooting the head clean off a synth patroller. Nick grunted something lost in the hailstorm, the first section of enemies cleared at last. Tessa and Desdemona were at the head of the group as they moved. The hairs on Tessa's neck rose as she heard a familiar low beeping noise and grabbed Desdemona, slamming her down to the cracked floor just as a torrent of red lasers decimated where she'd just been standing. "Turrets up top!" Cried MacCready, firing a shot at the small compact turrets in the ceiling of the long, large chamber they overlooked.

Various agents and militia fighters shouted as they altered, pressing themselves into cover as three turrets bared down on them, old pipes and crumbling support structures making it hard to spot the deadly machines, Tessa wishing for her Pip-Boy's radar as she shuffled along the metal floor to cover, Desdemona right behind her. Squinting into the darkness, Tessa shouted for them to ceasefire, far too many shooting wildly and missing the small deadly turrets, and watch the corridor behind them save for the best shots. Raising her hunting rifle and taking aim at a sliver of blue among the darkness, Tessa fired. A crackle of sparks signaled a good hit, the other two doing the same as Whisper and MacCready destroyed them.

With the turrets taken care of the forces pressed on, rushing through a computer room and down a stairwell where exposed pipes and orange emergency lights greeted them with more old gen synths. A trio of them stood in the tight corridor, bits of armor attached to their dirtied plastic skin and laser rifles in hand. Tessa sneered as she tossed a grenade, taking legs and arms but the robots still functioned. Before anyone could stop her, Cait forced her way out of the throng of bodies and screamed as she descended upon the synths, slicing their bodies to pieces with her deathclaw gauntlet. Another synth came around the corner, firing lasers at her head only for a bullet to strike it between the eyes, taking out its central processor and it collapsed. Cait smirked over her shoulder at MacCready who gave a small salute and wink.

The tight corridors forced them to spread out further, Tessa at the front with Cait and Piper, Desdemona right behind her with Nick and Deacon. "Terminal!" Tessa shouted, Nick darting forward past a broken window to it, disabling another group of turrets just as they dropped from the ceiling, ominously hanging there as if they might still fire. Once they were sure the turrets were deactivated did they press on, coming to another computer room with a door leading to the bottom of the chamber from earlier.

"It's some sort of robot manufacturing line," uttered Nick in realization, taking in the disassembled protectrons on a make line, before spotting a hulk of mechanical nightmare across the way surrounded by gen one synths. "Sentry bot!" The roaming tank of death activated with a deep booming voice, machine guns spinning as it turned to the invading force, running over two synths in its way as bullets chewed into armor and flesh. A Minutemen soldier screamed in agony as he was caught, collapsing to the filthy floor in a bloody heap. Tessa grabbed Piper and pulled her close as she ducked into cover behind an assembler, the reporter grunting in response.

"Thanks," Piper whispered, clinging to Tessa as she stood protectively over her.

"Anytime," Tessa smoothly replied, forgetting about the fight for a moment until a torrent of gunfire swung just overhead. "Fuck these things," swore Tessa, reloading her hunting rifle and turning back to the fight. Deacon quipped nearby, Tessa spotting his helmeted head as the sunglass loving man rolled out of the way of the sentry bot, just narrowingly avoiding being turned into swiss cheese. Rabbit jumped aside as well, pulling Desdemona into cover just in time, a small cry escaping the agent as they shielded Desdemona from a burst of bullets. The redheaded woman called something out Tessa couldn't understand, an order perhaps, and Valor and Tango scrambled around the sentry bot to surround it.

Everyone else was in cover now, Tessa just able to see Cait and MacCready behind a stack of smoking computers while Nick jumped back through the shattered window. The synths came climbing over the machinery, heedless to their own danger and Preston ordered a group of Minutemen to start blasting the skeletal robots and pull back to Nick's position. The synths fell easily, old unmaintained bodies shattering under bullets and lasers alike.

"Cait!" Tessa shouted loudly, catching green eyes in the gloom as the sentry bot whirled around, struggling to pick which target to fire at and instead sending a constant stream of bullets as it spun its upper half 360 degrees. "I'll distract it! You remember what we did last time we faced one of these things? Everyone else needs to pull the fuck back for when it explodes!"

"Fuck yeah!" Cait hollered, MacCready voicing his protest but they were already moving. Desdemona barked orders while Preston commanded the militia, everyone pulling back to better cover. Tessa threw a pair of grenades at its feet, only lightly damaging it but drawing its attention from the retreating forces. "Time to eat shit!" Cait screamed as she climbed up a set of computers, standing just above the sentry now. Tessa fired into its red visor, the ominous light emanating from it sparking with each bullet that struck home. The sentry bot rushed towards Tessa, forcing her to jump over a rusted protectron torso and she gritted her teeth at the mere inches she cleared it with.

Supporting fire came from the window and above, Preston and MacCready back at the overlook and shooting alongside Deacon, Rabbit and Whisper. Tessa spotted Piper besides Nick in the window, terror on the reporter's face but Tessa couldn't dwell on it she had to keep moving. _Stop moving and you're dead!_ The blonde fired with her pistol now, jumping over more robotic corpses and luring the sentry bot closer to Cait. It moved with an unholy speed for its bulk, probably twice as tall as Tessa, barreling into the woman who cried out as she was hit, sliding across the bullet laced floor. Her ribs screamed in agony, but didn't feel quite broken, bruised more like. Tessa spat blood, injected herself with a stimpak and rose to her feet just as the sentry bot charged once more, intending on running her over.

Then the fist fighter made her move, jumping down on the back of the machine and punching her gauntlet into its metal hull. The sentry bot spun about wildly, trying to shake Cait off but she swore and wrenched, muscles flexing as she put every bit of strength she had into it. The sentry moved backwards as quick as a bullet, slamming Cait into the metal wall and she gasped in pain but did not waver as it moved forward to try again.

Tessa fired a burst from her shotgun, crippling one of its three wheeled legs with the help of the others, making the robot reduce its speed just enough that Cait didn't become paste as it hit back. Another concentrated blast from an army's worth of shooters, not all hitting, crippled another and the sentry bot resorted to spinning its torso at a nauseating speed. Cait stabbed the deathclaw gauntlet into its armor, fixating herself in place and gripped the ridges in its hull. Screaming in fury, sweat dripping down her armored form, she ripped off the protective plating to expose its fusion core. With an ecstatic cackle she threw herself from the sentry bot, sparks popping from its exposed weak spot, and rolled to recover. "It's all yer's!" She laughed, running for cover away from Tessa, the sentry shooting after her.

Lining up the shot, Tessa wished she could've had V.A.T.S. to assist her but she trusted her aim enough to dare. The bullet tore through the fusion core, a terrible noise filling the air only to be drowned out in the ensuing explosion. Tessa ducked behind a crackling computer, the rush of heat and fire whooshing past her. When it'd cleared and she could hear again she poked her head around the computer, smirking at Cait who stood in the dying flames with her arms raised above her. "Good job," praised Tessa.

"That's how ya do it!" Shouted Cait, "shit, feels as good as psycho!"

"Don't wear yourself out too soon," Tessa said softly as their allies returned, some staring at Cait with awe. MacCready checked her over, frowning with worry and she gave a boastful smirk. Piper was at Tessa's side in a blink, fretting over her injuries and she could only shrug and accept the med-x offered with a stimpak. "We've still got a whole Institute to fight through."

Desdemona gave them both an approving nod. "The hatch into Bioscience should be just up ahead. From there we can get into the reactor and save your girlfriend."

"Let's go then!" Tessa urged, practically running to the hatch Desdemona pointed out. It was welded shut, old as if from when they'd stopped using this section of the Institute. "Cait," Tessa instructed simply, the redheaded woman eagerly punching it with the deathclaw gauntlet. The nightmarishly sharp claws dug right in, Cait grunting with effort as she heaved and slashed, opening the thin metal hatch up to them. "Almost makes fighting that monster worth it," Tessa remarked as she jumped down into an old corridor of metal and concrete.

"The fight alone was!" Snickered Cait behind her, everyone else following them down the short and cramped corridor to a collapsed section of rubble, revealing a rusted old door. Tessa grimaced as she realized the real fight should be just ahead of them, and braced herself as she opened it.

Immediately the air around them changed, dust and grime gone, the unnatural cleanliness of the Institute before them as they found themselves in a research room in Bioscience. No one was there to sound an alarm, and Tessa lead the small army down a small stair into another offshoot room, the Bioscience atrium right besides them. "This is more like it," whispered Desdemona as she took in the fancy computers and bright white walls. Tessa could only imagine how much Tinker Tom would drool at the sight of them.

Tessa pressed herself to the wall, a window also giving them a view of the atrium. She blinked, it was deserted. The plastic like plant growers, all across the floor and lining the walls, were unattended. Desks and consoles and other fanciful technology that went right over her head unused. The only living beings she saw were the synthetic gorillas housed in a viewing chamber in the wall. "This is wrong," Tessa said softly. "There should be at least-"

Her words were cut short by laserfire, a trio of turrets dropping down from the upper portions of the tall atrium, blasting at where she stood. Tessa ducked back around the door, hissing under her breath as she felt the heat of lasers on the plastic like wall. "MacCready!" She called, and the sniper gave an affirmative as he moved to a good position.

Cait punched out a section of the glass window, giving him a hole to shoot from with better cover than poking through the doorway. A pair of shots took out one turret, while it took him three to get the other with the angle. The third was downed by a burst of fire from Desdemona and Deacon, the Railroad and Minutemen filling out into the Bioscience atrium. They scanned the area, expecting more to come at them now that they were truly within the Institute.

Tessa swore loudly as the glass between them and the gorillas was lifted. The pair of silver backed beasts roared as they charged the nearest fighters. Rushing around the center wall of equipment came gen one and two synths, shiny and new compared to those within the old tunnel and seizing upon the startled invaders. Deacon cried out as one gorilla smashed into him, massive fists pummeling his bad side and sending him to the ground. Before it could bring its giant teeth into his flesh a sneering Rabbit and Valor both came to Deacon's rescue, the giant of a man attacking the synthetic animal directly while Rabbit fired one bullet after another into its face.

"Deacon!" Called the blonde woman, helpless to come to his aid as the other gorilla zoned in on her. It roared with gnashing teeth and spit, Tessa firing at its face as it jumped over a planter and she narrowly avoided its fists, a pair of synths meeting what would have been her fate instead. "Just die you fucker!" She screamed in frustration, shooting back with her shotgun as she fled, just out of reach for a full impact as the buckshot spread too wide. The gorilla barreled over anything that got in its way, crushing synths and humans alike, determined to kill her as if commanded to do so.

Suddenly there was a flash of red, Tessa spinning just in time to catch Cait, screaming like a banshee and spitting mad. The gorilla brought its heavy fists down, Cait sidestepping just enough, and then slashed across its lowered face. Ribbons of red streamed from the gauntlet, Cait cackling as the blinded gorilla panicked. When it tried to tackle her she slipped by, a violent grace to her Tessa marveled at, and then struck the back of its neck. It collapsed in a massive heap, a moment later its companion joined it upon the floor.

Piper pressed her back to Tessa, startling her for a moment, firing at a trio of old gen synths that chirped like birds with their warbled voices. "Blue…" Piper hissed, Tessa firing at a pair that encroached from her side. "Where would they have Curie?"

"SRB most likely," she grunted, one synth dropping like a heavy stone as a bullet hit home. She winced at the feel of laserfire upon her shoulder. "There's only going to be more of them between us and her though."

"I don't care what we have to fight through," Piper replied firmly, Preston helping her put down one of the skeletal synths. Piper grunted as one without legs shambled towards her, stomping its metallic skull with her boot until it stopped moving. Tessa bashed one that rushed her with the butt of her shotgun, Piper shooting another that came from their side. "We're saving her."

Nick snarled as he suffered another blow, Tessa's heart freezing with worry as he fell back against the ruined white wall. Her heart only beat again when yellow optics rose and he sneered vengefully, clutching his damaged torso. Nick eliminated the nearest synth, blasting it's mechanical brains out with the pistol. "Good thing he's tougher than he looks," commented Piper, concern for her friend coloring her otherwise tense voice.

"Yeah," grunted Tessa.

The last of the synth attackers fell, heavy breathing filling the void of gunfire. Desdemona and Preston were examining the troops. Tessa, with Piper at her hip, approached them. "I've got a bad feeling," Desdemona said in a soft whisper, "no people so far beyond the relay room?"

"It does seem weird," Preston agreed, "maybe they evacuated? They knew the plan right?"

"But why evacuate, they surely could crush us otherwise? Even not knowing the Minutemen we're joining us."

"Whatever is going on it's too late to back out now," Tessa said briskly. "We have to see this through. Dez, what's the plan from here?"

"We have to get to the reactor, which means going into the atrium."

"So if anybody is still here, we can expect heavy resistance," Preston added, prepping his laser musket. "Maybe they just moved the scientists to a safe room in case we still attacked?"

"Shaun likes to prepare," agreed Tessa, reloading her shotgun. "We should split into smaller groups, keep explosives from wiping us out." A certain synth filled her mind and she grimaced. "Try and mix Railroad and Minutemen so our arsenal is varied."

"Sounds good General," Preston said, Desdemona nodding in agreement. The pair swiftly set about breaking the groups up, certain folks gravitating towards one another with ease. The closest of brothers in arms. Valor, Whisper and Tango matching up with a pair of Minutemen. Deacon gave Desdemona a wink, Rabbit shadowing the man with Daniel behind the short agent alongside a pair of militia. Riptide, alone with Cliff in Sanctuary, Viper dead and Pipsqueak protecting Tinker Tom, quietly joined a group of Minutemen already sporting nasty wounds that were sure to scar, smiling up at the marred man.

Piper, Preston, MacCready, Cait and Nick all gave Tessa a look, as if there was any question who they'd fight beside. Tessa simply smiled back. "Let's get Curie," She said, each of her friends voicing their agreement. Bracing themselves for whatever was to come, they entered the atrium.

* * *

 **AN: Sorry for the delay guys. Simply put: life. I hope to pick up a better writing schedule going into next year, thanks for sticking around. Have a happy holiday season!**


	6. Hurt

Tessa Grey had seen battle. Even before the bombs dropped she'd been witness to combat, though not first hand, through the movies and news reports about the ongoing war with China. Nate's letters home were always censored, thick black lines crossing out the details of where he was or what he was doing, making her mind whirl with frantic imagination that was only further fueled by the news as things got worse and worse. Her awakening in the Commonwealth was nothing short of a nightmare, the brutality of the wastes almost too severe for her to comprehend at times. In the month since the destruction of the Brotherhood she'd been wracked with nightmares; Danse's face exploding into a mess of gore, the Prydwen collapsing onto the airport with burning bodies flinging themselves from it, Curie broken beneath her.

Some nights she couldn't sleep at all.

What she'd lead the Railroad and Minutemen Into was nothing short of insanity.

MacCready was clutching the side of his face, blood streaming from the remains of his left ear, hunched down behind a wall with Piper furiously trying to apply first-aid. Cait screamed as she tore anything that got near apart, ignoring the blood that streamed from her wounds as she defended them. The armor she wore was half destroyed, energy blasts disintegrating sections, bullets grazing her body or explosions scouring the protective sections with holes and marks. She was panicked, desperate, trying her damndest to keep them safe but there was always another synth she had to cut down, one after another attacking.

Nick was missing patches of his plastic like skin, exposing delicate wires and hard metal. He did his best not to show his pain as he fired into the fray, just another part of him gone, swallowed by the wastes. Preston was lucky the shrapnel from an explosion had missed his eye by the mere centimeters it had, leaving him with a long gash rather than blinding him. He winced as more blood dripped down his face, vision blurring every so often as he tried to fight back the tide of synths. Tessa wasn't too sure how she was still alive, laser burns chewing through her armor, luck having them disintegrate instead of her along with it. Every breath she took was like fire, inhaling charred flesh and spilled blood.

This battle was sheer madness.

Her back pressed to a wall, Preston and Nick on either side of her, they struggled to take down one of the many coursers that had descended upon them the moment they left Bioscience. It had been instantaneous, ten of them manifesting like ghosts to open fire, nearly killing Tessa if Piper hadn't thrown her down in time, taking a few lasers instead. The group had killed three of them since, Tessa unsure how many the other groups of fighters had defeated, but the coursers weren't alone. Old gens synths were everywhere, a restless wave of mechanical bodies as if Shaun had opened cold storage of them. They chirped and warbled, flinging endoskeletons at frightened militia fighters, ripping flesh from bone with unnatural strength. Corpses littered the ground, blood and hydraulic fluid slickening the already slippery surface. Tessa wasn't sure there was a dry spot left in the whole Institute.

"There!" Shouted Nick, firing at the distortion in the air a few feet away. Tessa aimed at the blur, a faint shimmer to where the invisible courser stood like heat rising from hot asphalt, and shot repeatedly. A bolt of red struck home, the courser turning pure red before disintegrating into a pile of glowing ash. "Nice shot!" He praised Preston who grimaced in response, recranking the laser musket as another courser came at them. "How many of these guys are there?" Nick demanded, shooting rapidly with his new pistol.

"As many as they've trained!" Tessa shouted over the torrent of noise, blasting the shimmering form with everything she could. A bloodied face appeared inches from her, a knife in hand and aimed at her throat. Then the courser fell away, torso reduced to gore as she fired rapidly into them. "They're tougher than most synths!" She blasted the courser's head to smithereens just to be sure.

Another synth came at her, plastic faced like Nick, trying to stab her with a stun baton. She blasted its head off with her shotgun, Preston covering her as she reloaded. "Piper!" Preston shouted, alerting her of a courser that'd slipped past Cait. The reporter swore as she rolled away from MacCready just enough to avoid the laser fire, and fired with her pistol in return. Bolts of red light zapped the courser who turned on a dime after her, but before they could strike Piper the long claws of a deathclaw pierced their chest, Cait standing behind the impaled courser who gave one pained gasp before dying. Piper gave the fist fighter a thankful smile, which quickly became a cry of alarm as a pair of synths came at Cait from behind. She whirled around, ready to fight, when their heads exploded in bursts of metal and a milky fluid, MacCready gurgling some witty remark buried under the cacophony of battle.

"We're almost there!" Tessa shouted, trying to keep their spirits up. They had just a few more yards to go and then they'd be at the SRB, the door just within her line of sight around the bend of blood stained and bullet ridden white walls. "Curie should be just ahead!"

"This isn't going well General," Preston coughed, "I'm already a third through my ammo, and I'm sure the rest are too." That wasn't even mentioning their dwindling supply of stimpaks, forcing them to be more sparing than before.

"They don't have an infinite amount," Tessa replied as she scanned the corridors for the others, trying to see how the battle was faring all around. The mashing waves of bodies, ally and enemy both, made it nearly impossible for her to tell. She gritted her teeth in frustration. What she'd do to have her Pip-Boy right about then! "Most of them seem to be coming from the SRB, so if we take that we might be able to stop their reinforcements!"

"More like run right into their guns!" Shouted Nick. "You're sure Curie is in there?"

"She has to be! There's nowhere else they'd keep her!"

"I don't know, maybe with Father?"

"I'm sure he's secured but- no she just- she has to be there!"

The synth gave her a look, yellow optics easy to catch even in the chaos. "If you say so," he grumbled, reloading. "Piper, you good?"

"Me? Yeah sure, I'll live. I'm worried about MacCready though!" She shouted back, sliding next to the downed sniper. "I think your whole ear is gone."

"I'll survive," he grunted, "I think… I think the bleeding has stopped at least."

"Can you stand?" Tessa called, inching towards them. Something exploded to their left, Valor's battlecry echoing off the blasted walls.

"I… Yeah," he raggedly replied, getting to his feet with the help of Piper. He hoisted his pistol, unable to hold his sniper rifle aloft at the moment, and swayed on his feet slightly. "Preston?"

The lieutenant dashed over, easily supporting MacCready. "I gotcha pal." He swapped to a laser pistol from his hip, blasting a gen one synth that came at their hip. Cait screamed violently as she tussled with a courser, not letting them escape her but unable to bring her gauntlet in for the kill. Piper came to her aid, unloading her pistol into the courser's back as they came around, granting Cait the chance to finish them off. The redhead smirked at Piper, before jogging over to the group. "I don't think he can make it in there," Preston said softly.

Tessa scanned him over, spotting the determination on his battered face. He'd taken one laser after another since the Imperial was ambushed. Burns speckled his pale skin, the heavy armor he wore probably the only reason he was alive. "Preston…" She said thickly, "pull him out."

"What?" MacCready coughed, pulling against Preston towards Tessa. "Come on, I can still fight!"

"No, you can't." The blonde drew close, almost having to shout even a few inches from him. "You've done good, but you can't stand on your own. We don't know how many more of them are in there, and you can't fight. I'm not letting you kill yourself."

"But Curie-"

"We'll save her," she interrupted, "but you are done."

He strained towards her, trying to prove he could stand on his own only to immediately falter. Cait grasped his shoulder, shoving him into the wall and he grunted softly. Tessa stepped back, a bit surprised by how forceful the brawler was being, and glanced at where the others were giving them cover fire. Thankfully, the number of enemies around them seemed to have lessened, if only for the moment, and the curved wall granted them more cover than where Tessa had been at earlier. Firing at the throng of enemies, Tessa could just barely make out their words.

"Don't be stupid," Cait hissed firmly, "yer hurt bad."

"It's just an ear!"

"And ya got shot in the tunnels, I saw ya get hit before and now this? Yer done."

"I can fight, just keep me at a distance!"

"Yer head ain't on straight, ya go in there ya die, and I am _not_ losing ya." There was a certain wet noise among the clamour of gunfire. Tessa frowned softly, turning back and looking at them. Cait was kissing MacCready, holding him close and he seemed almost too stunned to even move. When she pulled back, Cait gave a soft sigh. "Go back."

"Okay," he uttered, staring up at her, "but you better survive. If I'm not here to watch your back-"

"I've got Grey, Wright and Valentine," Cait replied softly, "Garvey can take ya back."

Tessa looked away, ears burning slightly despite the ongoing conflict, and turned to Preston. "Can you get him to the relay room and make it back?"

"I'll need another hand, with only my pistol…" Preston trailed off, firing at another old synth. It collapsed in a wave of red ash. "It'll be hard."

Tessa grimaced, unsure if they could spare half of them and still make it to the SRB. Scanning the masses, she just made out the ginger of Desdemona's hair, catching her sidestep a courser, blast their flank, and then stab another synth with a combat knife. Deacon snarled violently as he finished the courser off, Rabbit at his flank. "Desdemona!" She called, "we've got wounded!"

The Railroad leader snapped her attention towards Tessa, wild and bloodied. "So do we!" Shouted Desdemona, rushing towards her as quickly as she could in the battle. "We need to evac the critical and regroup!"

"How many do you have?" Tessa replied, fighting her way over to Desdemona, Nick covering her. "MacCready lost an ear, can't even stand let alone fight."

"Jones and Victor, the Minutemen, are on death's door. Daniel can help escort them back, we'll need at least one of your own."

"Preston is already good to cover them, can Jones and Victor walk?"

"They can support each other, Victor's down a leg, whole thing melted off. Jones is blinded."

"Shit."

"We're kinda in a bad ways here Bullseye," Desdemona hissed, the pair close enough now that they could speak normally. There was another explosion, a voice crying in agony that Tessa loathed to recognize. "If the Minutemen weren't here…"

"Don't focus on that," Tessa interjected, "we're not dead yet. These troops are all coming from the SRB, meaning we have to take that if we want to stop them. If we push for the reactor, they'll cut us off on our retreat."

"We have to regroup entirely, our groups are becoming too small."

"There's no one behind us right now, we're gaining ground," Tessa replied, firing at a chrome head, killing an old synth. "They're not sending out gen threes, it's all original cycle. They're running short, on the reserves. If we make a push we'll break through I'm sure of it. But if we've still got such heavily wounded when the timer is counting down, I don't know if everybody will make it out."

Desdemona seemed a bit unsure, before that resolve Tessa admired returned. "We need to be quick, if we hold the line while the injured are evacuated, we can make a push afterwards. They'll need to retreat back the way we came."

"We can hold," Tessa said, wishing she could just burst through into the SRB and save Curie but she knew she wasn't strong enough, there was too many at stake for her to be stupid. "Pick the ammo off the dead, take their guns, we don't have the option to be respectful."

The ginger woman gave a nod, raising her voice to rally the struggling fighters. "Come on! Just a little bit longer!" Strained cries and bestial grunts responded. "Pull the most injured back, we have to give them time to escape!"

Tessa reloaded her rifle, injected herself with a stimpak, and braced herself for however long it would take for them to get back. "Hold the line!"

* * *

 _FWOOSH!_

Tessa grimaced as the missile whisked past her, exploding against the door of the SRB with a sick, meaty noise as body parts went flying, covering the plastile white walls in thick red. "Nice!" Deacon shouted to Rabbit, the short agent giving a cocky grin before reloading the missile launcher. Its mere existence was a godsend, a blessing Tessa would have to thank for later. When the injured had been pulled back the battle had grown to a crawl, painful, bitter agony as the synths tried to swarm them and they had to do everything they could not to be overrun.

Tessa wasn't sure how long it'd been, felt like days down there struggling, watching as another person fell besides her, wondering if she'd be next. When Preston had returned with fresh faced Minutemen, weapons and ammo, she'd nearly kissed the man. From what she'd gathered in Preston's quick explanation they'd been slow to answer her call due to their distance from Mercer Safehouse, but they'd not given up on her either.

Hope renewed, Tessa screamed loudly as she fired at the synths that came rushing towards them, mere feet from the SRB and where Curie would be. Another explosion sent body parts flying, Rabbit seeming quite keen of the missile launcher that was suppressing the coursers who were struggling to get any distance between them and the door. Even with their invisibility Rabbit and a few others laid down heavy explosives, the reinforcements having come well armed. The Institute however, wasn't going down easy, and fired back with a vengeance.

One laser struck the chest of a Minutemen, turning them to red ash, while another caused their missile launcher to explode in their hands, killing them instantly. Desdemona shouted orders as a break in their line formed, and instantly the metallic skeletons surged, climbing over toppled over furniture turned into cover and ripping into the fighters. Riptide bellowed in fury as a pair of them scrambled up his back, fingers piercing his skin and fixing them in place. Valor came to the man's aid, smashing the butt of his rifle into one's skull and blasting the other away. Tessa swore loudly as she spotted the shimmer of a courser, barely catching sight of them as they snuck through the hole and came at Piper, the reporter distracted by a few gen ones crawling with ruined bodies towards her, dragging robotic entrails.

"Piper!" Shouted Tessa, firing at the swiftly moving blur, missing each time. What she'd have done for V.A.T.S. right about then, heart seizing in fear as the courser closed in on her. Hazel eyes widened as Piper realized what was coming, turning her pistol towards the blur, when Cait swept in and stabbed the courser's side. Their invisibility faltered, granting them a view of an agonized face, before Cait pulled her gauntlet free and they collapsed onto the corpse ridden ground.

The moment of relief Tessa felt was instantly stolen as another explosion shook the ground nearby. Limbs, metallic and fleshy both, sailed in every direction, Tessa's stomach turning as an ear hit her face. Her already present revulsion with the battle was near to tipping, only her determination to save Curie and end it keeping her from vomiting. Rushing over to the line, Tessa peered at the SRB door, held ajar by all the blasted corpses, and sighed in relief that it seemed clear of enemies. The old gen synths were still everywhere, but the coursers had either pulled back, gone into hiding, or were at last defeated. "Dez!" She shouted, "I'm going in!"

"There could be more in there!"

"I won't be alone," she replied, Cait and Piper running over to her, Nick and Preston limping a bit slower behind. Deacon gave a look at Desdemona, who nodded firmly, and jogged over to them. "Cover us! We'll see if there's a way to shut down the old synths from within!"

"Good luck!"

* * *

The SRB is eerily quiet within, the terror of the ongoing battle muffled but inside was little more than silence. Tessa strode behind Cait, the fistfighter ready for any courser hoping to take them by surprise. Piper and Deacon were close, a tight formation to keep an invisible enemy from sneaking between them while Nick and Preston took the rear. The air within was dead almost, the ventilation cut due to some explosion and making the interior rise in temperature steadily. Sweat beaded down Tessa's face, the woman unsure if it was because of the ongoing battle, heat, or the fear settled in her heart.

There was no sign of anyone, the stations left abandoned with gun lockers thrown open. Tessa stomped over a scattered mess of papers, the corridors tight as they moved further within. She'd only ever seen the entrance area, where X6-88 had spoken with her prior to going to Libertalia to reclaim a runaway synth turned raider. One of the Institute's many attempts at swaying her to their side.

She'd known where the door was however that lead to further within, expectant of more enemy combatants but they were met with peace. Cait snarled as she spotted the skeletal figure of an old gen synth standing in one corner, yellow optics watching them closely, yet it neither spoke nor moved. The fist fighter destroyed it just in case before they pressed on.

White walls awash in the unnatural light of the Institute turned to reinforced steel, the group passing cells with one way glass and strange machines besides restraining chairs. More and more they passed silent sentinels, watching and waiting with an eerie calmness. Cait easily dispatched each one they spotted, not wasting the ammunition if they weren't fighting, but untrusting that the machines would remain docile for long. Then they heard it, a voice fraught with fear, drifting from the last room within the corridor of interrogation cells.

"Fuck fuck fuck, this should be done already," a male voice hissed out, something slamming down and making a clanking noise. "Why isn't this done!" They shuffled closer, listening to the panicked voice that seeped through the heavy door. "Fuck! Another error!"

"Calm down," another man's voice came, just as quick and panicked, "we can't leave until it's finished, and screaming isn't going to make it go any faster."

"But why! What's wrong with her!"

"There's clearly some sort of pre-existing damage, it's complicating the process you know that."

Tessa's chest stiffened at their words, glancing back to the others to see the same apprehension across their faces. Pressing herself against the wall, Tessa shuffled besides Cait to the doorway. The others watching around them, Tessa quickly hacked into the console and the door came flying open. "Shit!" The men screamed as Cait and Tessa rushed in, the fist fighter stabbing one in the gut while Tessa pinned the other against the wall, pistol pressed to his skull. "Please don't shoot! Please!" He pleaded, the voice of the first man, his eyes wide with terror and the smell of urine filling the otherwise sterile air.

"Blue…" Piper whispered, drawing Tessa's attention away from the man she nearly blew the brains out of to the center of the room. Laying on a medical table was Curie, wires attached to her shaven skull to a machine that displayed a progress bar with a series of errors, about halfway through whatever they were doing. Other medical equipment was attached to the woman, left nude upon the cold metal, a heart monitor slowly beeping away. "What the hell are you doing to her!" Screamed the reporter, tears welling in hazel eyes as she stole the man from Tessa, shoving him against one of the terminals.

The others remained at the door, guarding them and sneaking concerned glances back as the two loves and Cait took in the scene before them. The redhead sneered violently, letting the other scientist's corpse slide off the deathclaw gauntlet and menacingly wiped it half clean on the bloodied wall. "Look look I'll talk okay! Just don't- don't kill me!" Stammered the man, shaking in Piper's grip.

"Five seconds," ordered Piper, gripping his collar. Tessa had never seen Piper so furious, yet she was just moments behind her.

"Father wanted a backup of her mind," he started, holding his hands up by his face. "After X6-88 recorded the holotape we put her under for the procedure. We didn't know her recall code, we couldn't even identify who she was, so we had to get… archaic."

"Why would Shaun do that?" Demanded Tessa, every word filled with hate. Her heart was racing, eyes fixated on the calm expression of Curie. It was like when she'd transferred consciousness, Tessa almost able to believe her little more than asleep.

"I don't know, Father does what he wants we just obey! I suppose it was for the intel she no doubt possessed having been so… close to you!" He nearly screamed.

"We heard you say something's wrong, what?" Piper asked, knuckles turning white. "What did you do to her?"

He flinched at her volume, nearly hyperventilating when he finally found his voice. "There's something very, very defective about her," he stammered out, dark eyes wide with terror. "A critical fault in her memory, it's almost like there's an entire secondary person inside her! There was fragments, like dreams almost but far too real, actual proper memories! We had to stitch them together to see what was her or not, and it's not like memories are stored linearly in the mind! Was she even a fucking robot once?" Frustration filled his voice, glaring for a moment at the monitors as if they'd personally spited him.

"You saw her memories, but they weren't all her's?" Whispered Tessa, locking eyes with Piper. "The memory wipe that left G5-19…" The words died in her throat, the thoughts and possibilities whirling inside her mind. "Did you complete the backup?" She asked thickly, hand shaking on the grip of her pistol.

"It took forever, but yes. I don't even know how much time it took! It should've been so simple!"

"Then why are you still here? Why didn't you just kill Curie once you had what you wanted?"

"Father… He didn't want us to. I thought we'd discard her like every other broken synth but he was adamant we left her alive. I think he wanted her as a bargaining chip, we suspected you'd attack regardless… especially after her kidnapping was revealed. The problem was… Well her memory. God there was so much corrupted data, so much we had to fix before we could transfer, and then-" He cut himself short, fear stopping his tongue.

"Then what?" Piper hissed out, "What aren't you telling us?"

Tessa's heart caught in her throat, green eyes widening as she pieced it together, staring at the body of her love there upon the medical table. Curie was so gentle, innocent and unaffected by the harshness of the wasteland just as before. Tessa looked at the computer screens, watching the small green lines that moved like gentle waves, softly rising and falling with minimal alterations. She wasn't simply unconscious.

"She's gone…"

"What?"

"There's… There's nothing left of her. You took her mind, and left nothing." She turned to the man, his face paling. Everything was sharp and painful, as if filtered far too many times before slamming into her skull. He didn't even seem human, a shape of flesh and fear that pleaded for its life. "She's nothing more than a body."

Before he could say a word Piper had thrown him down, the scientist scrambling backwards only for a boot to smash into his chest, Piper screaming incoherent rage. He uttered desperate pleas as her boot kicked him again and again, struggling pitifully against her. Finally Tessa pulled her away, the man coughing up blood as he slumped against the wall alongside his friend. "Curie!" Gasped Piper, the blonde wrapping her arms around the woman and pulling her into a deep embrace. She clutched Tessa's chestplate, bubbling tears and sobbing pitifully against her.

A hollowness filled Tessa, the ache and fear in her heart that she'd find Curie dead exploding to consume her. Green eyes stared at Curie, mind struggling with processing the revelation. She was gone. Empty just as before, a husk waiting to be filled. Everything that made her Curie, her thoughts and memories, her hopes and dreams, gone. Ripped away as if they were nothing more than lines of data on a hard drive.

She'd been too late.

"Fuck," she passively heard Deacon utter, Cait struggling with tears of her own, head and arms pressed against the wall. She could just hear Nick shuffle closer, smell the smoke of a cigarette and the detective uttered his grief alongside Preston who removed his hat, struggling to stand.

"General… Wright… I'm so sorry," Preston whispered, but Tessa barely heard him. Cait screamed, slashing the wall with her gauntlet, raging in anguish. Tessa stared at the body. Curie didn't look dead, the softly beeping heart monitor a reminder that some part of her was still alive, breathing and beating there upon the medical table and yet it wasn't her. Tessa reached for her, fingers brushing against Curie's face. Piper cried louder, Tessa stoned into silence.

It felt like watching Nate die all over again, trapped within that cryopod, banging against the glass and unable to to do anything. Watching her husband be murdered and infant child stolen away, pleading for the door to lift, helpless and weak. She couldn't protect anyone, not then and not now. Always failing when she was needed most.

Tessa found herself over the man, pistol brandished, idly pointed at his head. "Please!" He cried out, rasping in pain. "We didn't mean to wipe her mind! It was an accident!"

"Why then?" Demanded Deacon, speaking the words the lovers were too pained to speak. Piper wept, covering her face, agonizing besides Tessa. "Why'd you do it!" She wanted to shoot him, something just stopping her, a whisper in the back of her mind perhaps. A soft voice pleaded for her to not succumb to the thirst for vengeance.

"Her brain is damaged, it deleted almost everything as we backed it up. Almost like she was fighting us, as impossible as it seemed. We'd get a piece over, and then it would just be… gone. When we tried to put it back over it'd get cobbled somewhere else, jumbled bits of data that made no sense. If we'd rebooted her like that she'd have suffered an aneurysm at the very least, if not a complete and total mental break. We kept trying to fix her, I promise, but we've never had this happen before we didn't know what to do!"

"She wasn't a machine!" Screamed Piper, striking him again. "She wasn't some robot you just booted up and gave orders! She was alive, a person!" The others watched as Piper lashed out, Tessa's hand shaking. "You just took that all away like it didn't mean anything! She wasn't a computer! She wasn't a machine! She was alive dammit! She was a fucking person!"

Finally someone pulled her off the man, Nick restraining her while the others watched. He sputtered, ribs cracked no doubt as he clutched his chest. "Why is it just two of you?" Preston demanded. "Why aren't the old synths in here attacking us? Why hasn't there been a single other scientist in this hole?"

The scientists coughed raggedly, struggling to find his breath before he managed, "Father called an evacuation the moment X6-88 and the rest of the coursers' signal cut out. When he knew they were dead, he knew you were coming. So he sent them away, leaving just Harold and I to finish this…" He looked at the corpse, sorrow in his quivering voice. "We sure fucked up huh bud?"

"Is Father still here?"

"Yeah. He's too weak to be moved… He's in his office right now, probably manning the terminal trying to keep you from winning. He set the synths to kill anything that didn't have a courser chip, aside from the ones in here. Removed their inhibitors, set them free to fend you off."

"Where'd they go?" Deacon asked, crouching down besides the man now.

"I don't know," he spoke earnestly, "they wouldn't tell us. Only the relay operators would've known but I guess you killed them if they weren't already gone, didn't you?" The voice grew a bit quieter, Tessa's grip tightening on her pistol. He'd killed her, in one way or another he'd caused her death. That body wasn't Curie, it wasn't the beautiful mind and soul she'd fallen so madly in love with. She wanted to kill him. He was just as bad as Kellogg, taking her beloved from her. "But wherever they went, they have the backup, they have her mind. I didn't mean to do this, please don't kill me! What we have here… it's just fragments at this point, keeps getting corrupted. I don't know why we were still trying…"

He was a pawn following orders.

"Get out of here," Tessa whispered, lowering the pistol.

"What?" He gasped, staring up at her. "You're… you're letting me go?"

"Are ya fucking serious?" Snarled Cait. "He did this to Curie! That bastard right there wiped her mind!"

"She wouldn't want this," Tessa uttered, voice soft and broken. She looked at Piper, hoping she'd find her love in agreement. Hazel eyes reddened by tears stared at her, struggling to move past her rage. Finally she gave a slow nod.

"He surrendered," Piper managed, "and you made a promise. She'd want you to keep that promise."

"You're lucky the gal you erased was a saint," Deacon said firmly, forcefully pulling the man onto his feet and shoving him towards the door.

"Thank you!" He shouted, stumbling away. "I- You won't regret this! I can… I can shut down the old synths!" He offered, fearfully looking at the others. "There's a control terminal here in the SRB. That should help... right?"

"Prove it," Nick ordered, the others following him out, leaving Piper and Tessa with Curie's body.

Tessa stared at her, taking in the monitors that slowly beeped. Tessa collapsed to her knees, Piper moments behind her, clutching the edge of the medical table, listening to the vitals of her lost love. She hunched over, her other hand covering her mouth as she struggled not to scream, everything hitting her at once. Despite the battle no doubt still raging within the Institute and the very real ticking clock of ammunition and stimpaks, she couldn't move.

Piper took her hand from the table, holding it between her own, forcing her to look at her. "We'll save her," Piper whispered, trying desperately to cling to that flutter of hope, the thought that Curie's mind was somewhere safe, if only far away. "We'll get her back. They have her mind, she's not dead… she's just not here." Tessa wasn't sure if Piper was trying to convince herself of that or if she truly believed it. "We need to get her out of here."

Tessa tried to speak, but all that came out was a gargled mess, green eyes streaming with tears. Piper pulled her into a firm embrace, desperate just the same. Even with that shimmer of a hope, all Tessa felt was another loved one gone, an emptiness filling her that would chase away every part of her that had the courage to fight. "I'm so sorry," she managed at last, a broken whisper at first, Piper shuddering against her. "If I'd been faster… If I'd been smarter… If I'd been anybody but me…"

"It's not your fault," croaked Piper, holding onto Tessa, afraid of losing her too. "It's Shaun's, all of it is his fault. He did this."

Almost instantaneously the grief she possessed shifted, the pain and agony twisting into a singular burning fire. Piper was right, there was one singular man behind it all, who'd twisted and tugged her along, who'd orchestrated everything from the moment she woke up. The man who'd set her up against Kellogg half out of simple curiosity, who'd lead the Institute down the path it'd taken, who'd turned the potential ally of the Commonwealth into its greatest enemy. Who, instead of bringing her to him immediately, had allowed her to struggle and nearly die again and again in the wasteland, treating her more like an experiment than his mother.

The man who'd taken Curie.

"I'm going to kill him," she said softly, an oath between them, no louder than the soft beep of the monitor. "I don't care what it takes, I'm going to kill him."

"Please…" Piper whispered back, clutching her as if Tessa was the last piece of driftwood at sea. Tessa held onto her just as tightly. "Please fucking do."


	7. These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends

They were met with no resistance leaving the SRB. Curie was carefully held in Tessa's arms, cradled against her armor with the others protectively surrounding them. Her eyes remained glued to the soft expression of Curie, the numbness in her chest fading, fire and rage swallowing her whole. When they'd made it back to the door the noises of fighting seeped through like the roar of a storm, constant and terrible. It came open with a muted whoosh, overwhelmed by the rage of battle. Tessa squinted into the chaos, expecting to see the scientist had lied to them, betrayed them in an act of vengeance. It took her a moment to realize he had spoken the truth.

The older synths stood like husks, deactivated, eyes dead without a hint of power. The Railroad shot them down, destroying the enemy before they could be reactivated and used against them once more. Among the debris of mechanical bodies was fleshy ones, some dressed in courser armor with shattered sunglasses and battered bodies. Others were ash, partial or complete, garbed in Railroad and Minutemen armor. Tessa carried Curie towards the main hub of forces she could see, entrenched outside the reactor now. Nothing came to attack them, perhaps with the reduced forces they'd finally been defeated.

Tessa almost couldn't believe it.

Desdemona turned to her, eyes wide as she took in their expressions and Curie. "You saved her," she said, smiling in relief. Her face was marred with blood, red angry welts upon her body or portions of her armor turned to ash like everything else. It seemed a miracle to Tessa she was still alive.

"Close enough," came Nick's bitter voice, rasping around a cigarette.

Desdemona frowned, peering closer at the unconscious woman. "You need to evac her. The enemy has stopped for now, a small group could take her," she said firmly, "we've been trying to hack our way into the reactor but there's only one terminal that can get us in."

"Let me guess…" Tessa said slowly, "the Director's."

Desdemona nodded, wincing a bit as it shifted her wounds. "According to Tom, but nobody can even get in there, unless they knew the code or could hack in. Tom can't remotely access it, the Director seems to be secured from everywhere else."

"I can get in."

Desdemona gave her a look. "Can you get there Bullseye?"

"Yeah, I know the way." Her voice sounded distant to her, everything off almost. She was hardly aware of the bodies shifting around her, just the woman she held in her arms. The shell she cradled against her. "You guys wait here, I'll get the door open. Piper," she turned to her, holding Curie closely. "Do you think you could carry her out?"

Piper frowned. "I'm strong but I don't know if I can make it that far."

"I got her," Cait offered, moving to take Curie from Tessa's arms. The redhead gave a little grunt, blowing strands of hair from her face, and then nodded once she had Curie securely in her arms. "Garvey, cover me." The Lieutenant gave an affirmative, moving closer.

"Piper…" Tessa said softly, giving her the choice of where she went.

Hazel eyes looked between them, lingering on the soft expression of their wounded love, before flickering to the pained woman. "You're going to need help," Piper said after a moment, "I trust them."

"Valentine, Deacon, Piper, with me then. Garvey, Cait, get Curie out of here," ordered Tessa. "See if Tom can't find out where the Institute was evacuated."

Desdemona bristled in alarm, "Excuse me?"

"Father evacuated almost everyone," Tessa explained, "that's why nobody is here but coursers and old synths."

"Then-" Desdemona cut herself short, gritting her teeth. "Okay. We have to take this place out though, if we leave they'll just come back and this'll all be for nothing. The plan remains the same… we'll just have to do something about the remnants after."

"Right," agreed Tessa, giving nods to the lingering pair. Uttering a few words of encouragement, Preston started leading the way, Cait rushing towards the old section of the Institute behind him. Tessa's stomach twisted as she watched them go, before she pushed it aside and turned towards the Atrium. She could see the Directorate meeting room, half expecting to see Shaun watching from there but it was vacant. Grimacing, she readied her shotgun. "Let's go."

* * *

The door to Shaun's room came open with a chime, her eyes alert for any coursers protecting then man. There was a long white corridor before her, Tessa and the others slowly entering with weapons readied. No one had stopped them on their way, nothing but corpses between them and Shaun. It's made the hair on the back of her neck rise, expecting something to whip around and attack them. When nothing had, she'd convinced herself that what awaited within that room was death. As she came around the bend, where his small loft of sorts was, her voice caught in her throat at what she saw.

"Hello Bullseye," Shaun greeted from where he sat at the terminal, an IV attached to him and a tube inserted into his nose from an oxygen tank. He hadn't turned from the screen, hands resting on the keys. Even from here Tessa could see he'd been countering something Tom had no doubt done. She blinked in confusion, taking in his bald head before spotting his hair, a wig in fact, by his bed along with a set of makeup.

"Director," she replied in as cold a voice, scanning the room only to find it empty. Without her Pip-Boy's radar she couldn't tell if there wasn't any coursers hiding, making her twitch with uncertainty and peer at every shadow suspiciously. Slowly entering the room, she narrowed green eyes, examining it best she could and stopped about halfway into the room. Deacon and Nick fanned to the edges, guns pointed at the dying man. Piper remained by the door, pistol trembling in hand.

"You know, when we finally had this conversation I anticipated more privacy," Shaun said slowly, pushing back from the terminal. When he turned to her, Tessa's heart quivered for a moment. He looked dead. His skin was grey, veins visible beneath, eyes cloudy and he shook where he stood. Using the IV stand as support, he laid back in the bed, the others watching like hawks. "I suppose it cannot be helped, considering the circumstances."

A few painful moments passed of silence, Tessa trying to straighten out her mind as she took in the state of her son. "Why?" Tessa demanded at last, "Why'd you kill her?"

Shaun stared at her, he looked pitiful. A part of her ached at the sight, her son lay there dying. Yet another part wanted for her to kill him right then, to make him pay for what he'd done to not just herself and her loved ones, but every life destroyed by the Institute. "Curie, I assume? I did not kill her," he replied in a quiet, calm voice.

"Bullshit, her mind is gone! You took her and hurt her! She's nothing but an empty shell now!" Snapped Piper, Tessa hearing her step further inside, coming up to Tessa's side. She could practically feel the rage emanating from the reporter.

"An unfortunate mishap." He sounded just as he had when he spoke of Nate, cold and uncaring, as if it wasn't a life dear to Tessa quenched. The darkness in the corners of Tessa's vision grew, fists clenching tighter. Shaun glared at Piper, almost as if insulted by her intrusion into their conversation. "Although, if I remember correctly her mind was successfully backed up. If you could find it, she could be revived… if you knew someone who could transfer consciousnesses that is. As if such a person exists in that degenerate wasteland you call home." He coughed, wet and ragged, blood speckling his hand. With a grimace he wiped it clean on the bed sheet. "Truly Bullseye, can we not speak in private? I couldn't possibly fight you in this condition."

"No way," said Deacon firmly.

"Not a chance," added Nick.

Piper pointed her gun at Shaun.

Tessa gritted her teeth, trying to rein herself in. She had to think clearly, as much as she wanted to unleash her fury upon the man. She had to do it right, and she needed answers. "What was the point of copying her mind for intel if you were going to kill me?"

"Whoever said that? I sent X6-88 and the other coursers to apprehend you and neutralize the Railroad. I never said you were to be killed. You are the one who forced this engagement, this wasteful battle. You chose war instead of peace." Each breath he took echoed, a chime coming from the machine attached to him. How had he degraded so quickly? Surely he'd seemed sick in the meeting, and any time she had spoken with him in private she could see that illness chewing away at him, draining her son of life- but to have been reduced to this? She glanced at the wig and makeup besides his bed, wondering just what else had been for show? In what other ways had he lied to her?

"I warned you what would happen if you hurt her," she said in a tone she might have once used to punish a mischievous Shaun for breaking a rule. It tasted bitter in her throat, the thought that this man was her child. "But you did it anyway."

"Truly I did not think her mind would prove so difficult," he admitted, "but at least the data was secured. Her body was to be little more than leverage afterwards anyways."

She couldn't stop herself, a fist flying right into his face, the fleshy sound accompanied by an incoherent shout of rage. Shaun cried out as she punched him, blood trickling down his cheek. "Not quite the punishment I expected," he replied gingerly, grasping his face and staring at her with wide eyes. "The Wasteland has changed you."

"Maybe it just showed who I really was."

Shaun narrowed dark, sunken eyes, lips drawing into a thin line. "How disappointing."

"Nick," she said, not tearing her gaze away from Shaun, blood dripping down bruised knuckles. "Get the reactor door opened."

Nodding, the synth detective holstered his pistol and began typing on the computer. Deacon followed after him, hovering over his shoulder or looking back at Shaun as if he expected him to sprout synthetic limbs and attack them at any moment. "I wouldn't do that," advised Shaun, rubbing his cheek. It hadn't been too hard a punch, but in his condition he wounded easily.

"Of course you wouldn't," Tessa snarled, stomping around him. She was by the window now, just able to see the reactor door. The throng of Railroad and Minutemen had grown smaller, but they weren't dead yet. "You also wouldn't save your mother from the wasteland right? Or tell her you were even alive? You accuse me of being changed when you did nothing to prevent that! You easily could have reached out to me but you didn't! You let me suffer day after day searching for you, getting shot at, stabbed, blown up, set on fucking fire, irradiated, dehydrated and sleep deprived!"

"I see you're angry," he said calmly.

"Of fucking course I am!" She snarled back, wheeling at him. She was like a wolf, bristling with rage and hunger around her wounded prey. Yet she couldn't strike, not yet. "If you had done the right thing none of this would be happening!"

"And what would be the right thing?" Shaun inquired, arching a brow.

"Got it," Nick interrupted, typing a few more times and then there was a deep boom as the reactor door came open. Tessa looked out the window, the forces gathered outside it already moving to enter. Then she screamed. Synths, dozens upon dozens of them, armed with laser pistols, stood just inside the reactor. There was a flash of red, lasers striking the front line of forces with no more than a second of warning. Like a wave of death bodies fell, some grabbing another to throw them down, desperately trying to avoid the sweep of annihilation, the unfortunate glowing before they disintegrated to ash.

Tessa slammed her fist on the glass as the synths fired again, making out Desdemona shooting back, only for Rabbit to grab her and shove her out of the way. The ginger woman was safe from the blast of red death, Rabbit was not. Tessa gasped as Rabbit's left arm was vaporized, turning crimson before it fell away completely. The agent collapsed besides Desdemona, Valor's brown hair stuck out above the chaos, darting for the pair.

Then Tessa couldn't make anything out, nothing but war.

"Fuck!" Exclaimed Deacon, already turning on his heels and running back to help.

"I warned you," Shaun said simply.

"Why!" Tessa screamed, slamming her fists onto the edge of his bed. "We could have avoided all of this! Nobody needed to die!"

"I believe you're the one who lied," he retorted with as much venom as he could muster.

She gritted her teeth, reeling in thoughts. She wanted to kill him, god how she just wanted to make him pay for his crimes and be done with it, but she needed answers first. She couldn't just murder him, as much as she wanted to. She knew he wasn't going to survive this, she was sure to kill him, but she had to do it right. Even after Curie, he was her son, and the thought of his ghost haunting him with the other hundred souls was enough to stay her hand. "Blue," Piper said, pointing at the terminal. Tessa stepped over, eyes widening at the screen. It was a countdown, thirty minutes slowly trickling away on a bomb. There was only one place it could be.

"You set the reactor to blow," she gasped. "That's why everyone is gone. You… you knew I was coming… and decided to destroy everything."

"We have to warn them, if they go in there they'll just waste time," Piper said quickly. "They're all going to die!"

"Darn," Shaun lamely drawled, "my grand master plan, exposed."

"Warn them," Tessa ordered, looking at Nick and Piper. "Get them out of there now!"

"What about you?" Piper asked, panic in her voice.

"I'll do everything I can to delay it," Tessa said firmly, refusing to let her fear show. "Besides… There's something I need to take care of first."

Piper looked between the bedridden Shaun and the revenge thirsty Tessa, and pulled Tessa into a desperate, passionate kiss. Tessa returned it, a part of her wondering if this might be their last, before locking that part away. She had to believe they would both make it out, she had to. "Come home," whispered Piper before she and Nick departed. The detective muttered softly under his breath, words lost to Tessa as she focused on the terminal, already trying to counter the timer.

"Ever the hero, aren't you?" Shaun asked, a smile upon his face that felt wrong. "Trying so desperately to save just a few more lives, your friends, allies, the synths… How does that compare to the hundreds if not thousands you've slaughtered since your release into this world? Do you do it to try and ease your conscious? Is that why you try so hard?"

"Shut up," Tessa sneered, trying not to dwell upon his words, frowning as she tried to deactivate the bomb remotely. "The only things I want to hear from you are answers."

"What would you like to know?" Shaun inquired, arching a brow.

"Why did you take Curie? Why did you take her mind?"

"Intel and leverage, we've already established this."

"But why? What could she have possibly known that was worth all this?" Tessa took her gaze from the rows of code for a moment, glaring at him fiercely. "You take calculated risks, you weigh the worth of the results against the plausible consequences before you ever act- so what to you was worth risking me attacking?"

"You're perhaps the most valuable asset the Institute has," he replied evenly, "even after all this."

"Why? I'm your mother, nothing else. If it's for my DNA surely they have thousands of copies of yours, they could easily make more gen three synths with that." The terminal chirped, drawing her attention back to it and Tessa swore violently as she realized she'd let the timer slip further down. If she could delay it at the very least, give the Railroad a chance to escape, then maybe her staying would be worth it. She saw the elevator whoosh by the window, a blur gone in but only a moment. That would help, so long as the older synths didn't destroy it.

Shaun didn't answer, staring at her instead, watching the woman click away as she tried and failed to stop the timer. It required a password, and while she tried to hack into it clearly Shaun had anticipated such an action as it was perhaps the hardest hack she'd ever performed. She backed out before it could lock it entirely, frustrated as she couldn't quite get it. So close every time, yet not enough for her to risk it. There was too much at stake for her to fail now. "Come on!" She sneered, slamming her hands onto the desk. Ten minutes had already passed, the timer trickling away further.

Then she saw a file, tucked away between everything else, and her heart froze in place. "See something interesting?" Shaun asked, his voice as cold and detached as ever. It drove her mad. "I'm sure you'll love the many secrets locked away on that machine."

"Where did you evacuate the Institute?" She demanded, leaving the file alone for now. She had to deactivate the bomb first, there would be time for snooping afterwards not before.

"Somewhere safe."

"We don't have time for your evasive answers," she shouted, once more backing out before it was too late. "You're going to die here, you already know that, you've accepted it. Is this all just to spite me?"

"I've never considered myself particularly vindictive."

"You set me up to kill Kellogg though, your abductor and father's murderer."

"That I did."

"Why? Why didn't you just… save me?" She looked at him, trying to understand.

Shaun sighed softly, the oxygen tank making a loud noise as he inhaled once more. "It was imperative to the mission that you endure the Commonwealth."

Tessa frowned, trying to wrap her head around what he meant, when finally she hacked in. Smiling in triumph, Tessa quickly looked through the controls. When she attempted to deactivate it, another password prompt appeared and she swore thickly. "Damn you were prepared weren't you?" She hissed, backing out and searching for another means. At the bottom was her only hope, for now, a shiny reset button. Ten minutes were left, and she smashed the key to restart the countdown. She couldn't do it infinitely, but at least it meant more time.

"I fail to understand," Shaun said, voice thick and low, "why you fight as you do."

"Because people need to be protected," she replied, trying to hack into the shutdown. "Because what's out there is fucked up, and somebody has to fix it."

"But why you?"

Tessa sighed, fingers lingering over keys, struggling to find the answer that was being asked so often now, before she continued her attempts at hacking in. "I don't know Shaun. It's just… who I am, how I feel. I couldn't live with myself if I let people suffer and I could have stopped it."

"The synths are not human."

Tessa rolled her eyes at that familiar dismissal, having heard it spoken from the mouths of the Institute scientists for months now. "They're just as sentient, as alive, as humans are. They're equal. Have you ever even actually sat down and spoken to one? They're your children Shaun, and yet you treat them like they're nothing. How can you believe them the future and yet also worthless?"

"I know more about synths than you possibly ever could," Shaun's voice rose in tempo, passion filling his ever detached words. He strained in the bed towards her. "They are created fully grown and programmed. They have no childhood, only purpose. They are built for perfection and possess no flaws unlike humans. They do not grow old and wither away, or find themselves wasting to disease. They are the future!"

"Then why didn't you treat them as such? Why did you oppress them instead of nurture them?" She backed out, resetting the clock once more. She couldn't think, couldn't focus. "If you had done it all different the Railroad never would have been made, we wouldn't be here fighting! This is your fault!"

"Because my people were afraid! So many feared what the synths meant, feared that they would herald the doom of humanity when the synths are our salvation. To look at them for what they truly were, mankind redefined, was too great to bear."

"You of all people could have changed that!"

"That's why I made you!"

She stared at him.

Shaun stared back.

A century of silence, punctuated only by Shaun's medical equipment and the muffled fighting outside, passed between them. Tessa didn't move, didn't think, she simply stared at the Director where he lay a broken man, breath caught in her throat before it finally escaped in a pained, "Excuse me?"

"I created you."

"Bullshit."

"In a world in which you never know if someone is a synth, it never occurred to you that you might be something other than human?"

"I- you're lying!" She screamed, unable to move. Her feet refused to listen, her hands could no longer type. She trembled where she sat at the terminal. "You're just trying to manipulate me! This is all one final blow before you die! Some sick game!"

"You know it to be true!" He shouted back, breaking into a bout of ragged coughs, blood staining his sheets further. "How else could you have survived everything you've endured? Deathclaws, raiders, the Brotherhood and Kellogg, everything else the Wasteland threw at you. My mother was a lawyer, not a soldier! You are a synth. You were to be my greatest creation, the pinnacle of scientific evolution!" For once she could hear true emotion, so foreign in Shaun's voice it only further made her question everything around her. "But those freedom fighters once more ruined everything, they radicalized you, turned you into this catastrophic failure."

"Lies! I'm human! I grew up in Boston, I had a loving family and a pet cat! I used to take vacation trips with Nate to the woods and we married in the summer! I went to school, I made friends, fell in love, had a child, had _you!_ You're saying all of that was fake?"

"Your friend Nick seems to remember the life of another just as vividly."

"But he knows he's not that Nick! He remembers Nick going to have his brain copied, I don't because I'm Tessa Grey! I'm me, not a synth!" Her world was upside down, everything focused on the man there in bed alone, her son and yet a stranger.

 _She's the one we need, else we've wasted nearly fifteen years of our lives._

She couldn't possibly be a synth, she remembered life before the war and synths weren't around back then! Every part of her screamed denial, every inch wretched in refusal of his claim, except a small, tiny voice that simply asked, _Why did you alone survive?_

"Need I prove it? Fine. K2-49 initialize factory reset, authorization-"

Tessa wasn't certain when she'd moved, when she'd crossed the room and wrapped her hands around his throat, but when she felt weak hands pushing on her face, stared into Shaun's bulging eyes, saw the color leaving from his face, heard the frantic beeping of the machine, she didn't let go. She pushed harder, knuckles turning white, feeling his desperate heartbeat against her fingers. Shaun gave wet gasps, the tube in his nostrils ripping out at some point in the struggle, blood trailing down from his nose.

"Liar!" She screamed between bubbling tears, fat drops dampening her and Shaun's bloodied cheeks who struggled beneath her. He clawed at her face, legs shuffling against her but Tessa had fully mounted the bed, pinning him beneath her. He gasped a few, painful more times, eyes clouding. "You're lying! I'm human!"

Shaun stopped moving.

The machine flatlined.

Still Tessa screamed.

* * *

 **AN: Thanks for reading! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on Tessa and Shaun's final meeting. I just got a new job, so I'm still figuring out just how time for writing will go so updates might be a bit shaky as I figure things out but I promise I'll try to keep them fairly consistent.**


	8. War Never Changes

Shaun was dead.

It was a very real fact to Tessa. It was an undeniable truth with the blood upon her hands or the constant monotone cry of the monitor. Yet all the same Tessa couldn't quite process it, couldn't quite believe. There was a corpse in the room with her, yes, that much was true but to Tessa it wasn't the body of her son. Instead, the diseased, strangled corpse belonged to a stranger, an enemy. It was someone who had deserved death, who had finally received the justice so grossly overdue for every sin they'd committed, for every life destroyed in the quest for knowledge. The Director of the Institute, of the Commonwealth's great evil, lay dead and his killer could feel nothing, not sorrow nor pity nor rage.

She was simply empty.

The woman sat at the terminal, staring at the screen, watching as the timer steadily trickled down. Heavy fingers pressed down on the key, resetting the clock once more. She didn't know how long she'd sat there, watching it trickle down, trying to hack into the deactivation switch only to nearly fail again and again. Her mind was a mess, disconnected chaos, unable to focus on the password and hack in. She wasn't even getting close anymore. She reset the clock.

Why should she have even bothered, there was no way she was going to get in. All she could do was sit there and reset the clock, hoping everyone else had gotten to safety, had escaped that tomb. The body across the room lingered, mouth agape, eyes bulging. She didn't want to leave its side. She could still feel his frantic heartbeat against her hands, still picture the color leaving his face.

She'd killed him.

Something crackled over the PA system, but she didn't pay it any attention. Instead she focused on her task, resetting the clock once more. It hadn't been more than a few minutes but why should she let it slip further away? If anything it gave her something to think about that wasn't her son- that wasn't Shaun.

Tessa slammed her face into the keys, gritting her teeth, clawing at her skull. "Who am I?" She hissed out, voice raw from the screaming. A part of her simply wanted to dismiss Shaun's claims, to cast them off as little more than a desperate final attempt at spite. There was no way she was synth, she'd been locked away in Vault 111 long before they existed. She kept rationalizing it, telling herself Shaun had lied, he'd done is to many times before after all what was on more grand ruse, yet she couldn't quite believe it. Some part of her fully accepted it, as if it was the password to some hidden part of herself.

Yet it seemed impossible, no matter how many times she went over it in her head, questioning everything that had happened to her since the Great War. The fact that she possessed memories of her childhood didn't do much to reassure her, Danse had a vivid memory of his childhood in Rivet City and he had turned out to be a synth after all. She couldn't even trust her own mind anymore, that fact terrifying and numbing her at the same time.

The computer beeped, making her look up at the green screen. The file from earlier was highlighted now, flickering as if begging she open it. Tessa nervously selected it, finding it without a password lock.

It was titled 'Evacuation Plans', leading her to believe it would hold the answer to where the Institute had escaped, that it would be the key to finding not only the missing scientists, but her love's mind. So when she was met with little more than a simple 'File Deleted' upon the screen, everything twisted on itself before shattering entirely

She howled, rage consuming her as the shred of hope was vaporized, red filling her vision. She lifted the chair up and threw it against the window, cracking it slightly from the force. Tessa grabbed anything she could, kicking and screaming as everything slipped away. Curie was gone. There was no way she'd find her now. Her son wasn't her son but instead her creator, and she was a synth, a replacement, a lie.

Everything was wrong.

All the hope she'd built up, every reassuring whisper that in the end they'd succeed threw themselves in her face and slipped away. She tried desperately to cling to any of them, anything that would mean she could still save Curie, but nothing remained. They had failed, the Institute was still out there and she had no idea where. People had died, Minutemen, Railroad, scientists and synths, for nothing. Even knowing the Institute would be drastically crippled by the loss of this place, of this hell deep within the stone devoted to science with no morals, Tessa didn't feel any better. She'd promised a victory that would change everything, and all she'd done was get people killed.

By the time she was spent the room looked as worn as the rest of the Institute did now. Tessa trembled, bent over and clutching herself. She could hardly breathe, black and red swirling in her vision, everything disjointed as if it came through a bad feed.

"I fucking hate you," she swore thickly, looking at Shaun's corpse. "You… you had to have lied. There has to be some way," she struggled, trying to keep herself together but it was like trying to push back a river with only her two hands. "It's all a lie." She started laughing, grasping her skull, mentally reexamining everything Shaun had ever said to her. How could she have never even suspected? He wasn't wrong, the world was filled with secrets, the Railroad even specialized in helping a synth forget their true nature. What if that's all she was, a synth with any hint of the Institute stripped from her mind?

Madison Li's words kept echoing, the uncertainty she'd possessed in Shaun's decision. She had to have been in on it, she'd had to have known the truth. "Dammit there's no time," Tessa growled, realizing that it was impossible for her to get all the way to Advanced Sciences and discover whatever secrets Madison had hidden away if they hadn't also been destroyed. She walked back to the terminal, each step numb as she dragged the bent chair behind her, and checked the timer. She'd wasted almost twenty minutes. "Dammit…" She hissed, throat raw as she reset the timer. "Dammit all."

Tessa slumped in the seat, staring at the timer. "Fuck." She held her face in her hands, strength ebbing. The moments of rage faded, the numbness rising to consume her. She didn't know what to do, believe or even think.

It felt like years that she sat there, watching the terminal and occasionally pushing the button to reset the detonator. The PA went off a few more times but she didn't pay it any attention, the words coming out distorted to her. It wasn't until there was a hand on her shoulder and a beautiful brunette woman in her vision that Tessa snapped out of her trance.

"Blue!"

"Piper?"

"The hell is going on? We've been calling for you for over an hour over the PA!"

She blinked, trying to piece together how Piper was even there. "I… I can't hack in," she said, "I can't deactivate the bomb. I just keep resetting it to give everybody more time but-" Tessa couldn't finish the words, they simply strangled one another in her throat.

Piper frowned, glancing from the computer to where Shaun lay dead. "Shit," she softly uttered, Tessa wincing. The reporter crossed over, examining the bruises on his neck and the dried blood from his nose. Without saying anything she unhooked the heart monitor, the monotone drone finally cut off. Tessa blinked, it'd almost become like white noise to her. Then she turned back to Tessa, a certain look in her eyes that made the pain temporarily fade away. "It's time to go Blue."

"Everybody else?"

"The survivors have made it out," she said with a firm nod, walking back to Tessa and urging her up from the seat. "They took heavy losses, those synths in the reactor really got them good… but they survived."

"Desdemona?"

"She's alive, now we need to assure you will be to."

Tessa struggled to speak, Piper acting like the sole standing tree while the rest of the forest was ripped apart by a hurricane. She needed her now more than ever. "Piper I-"

"I'm glad he's dead," she said firmly, cutting her off. "And we'll talk about it later. But right now Blue we have to _run,_ do you understand me? The synths are on their way and I don't know how much longer we have."

Swallowing dryly, Tessa gave a small nod. There'd be time to talk later, to figure it out, but Piper was right. Now wasn't the time nor place. "Okay… Okay. Did… Did Tom find anything? Any clue where the Institute evacuated?"

Grimacing, Piper shook her head and reloaded her pistol. "They put a program in that wiped the coordinates, he couldn't pull anything on them. The terminal have anything?"

"No."

"Fuck." Piper inhaled sharply, nothing but hard edges and determination. Tessa shook as she readied herself for another fight, knowing that it wasn't going to get easy getting out. Hell she could've been in for the toughest fight of her life. "I'm not gonna lie Blue this is gonna hurt."

Tessa met her gaze, fear behind those beautiful hazels. "Good thing we've got stimpaks right?" She tried to joke, tried to seem like nothing was different. Piper only gave a bitter smile.

Walking out side by side, resetting the timer one final time, Tessa was surprised to see Piper hadn't been alone. Cait, Preston, Nick and Deacon were all waiting outside the room, watching for the no doubt approaching old gen synths. "What are you all doing here?" They'd all come back for her, the only one missing being MacCready. Her voice caught in her throat.

"No time!" Piper shouted, rushing forward, the others forming a line two wide behind her. Tessa blinked, still somewhere between reality and her shattered mind, trying so desperately to focus on something. Not even the impending danger could fully snap her out of the dark revelation. Cait was next to Piper, bandages haphazardly wrapped around her arms, deathclaw gauntlet poised to strike. Preston's hat was missing, Tessa suspecting it due to being disintegrated instead of the man's head, and he strode in the middle besides Nick who kept his pistol ready. Deacon gave Tessa a reassuring pat on the back, hardness upon his face, eyes ever hidden by sunglasses.

 _They came back for me._ The thought was like getting hit with a train, Tessa always knowing how close she and her friends had become, they'd helped her defeat the Brotherhood of Steel after all with little more than a simple explanation, yet even still it confused her. It must have been incredibly dangerous to risk returning for her, Preston and Cait had every excuse not to return through that portal into hell and yet there they were. _They came back._

She'd have forgiven them for not, for leaving her to her decided fate in that room, for choosing it was too dangerous to come. Burns and other wounds speckled their bodies, bits of armor gone, sweat and blood dried to skin, a haunted exhaustion clinging to their bodies. Yet still they were there, saving her. The numbness faded, something she'd almost given up filling her, rising up her body like a ghost. The kind of courage one only got from camaraderie. She wasn't alone. If they could make it to her, they damn well could get out together.

Snarling, gripping her shotgun till her knuckles turned white, Tessa stomped her foot as they moved swiftly down the stepless curving stairway. "Let's kick some ass! We don't die here today!"

"There she is!" Shouted Cait, grinning back at her before the first enemies appeared on the bottom floor. "General Motherfucking Bullseye!" She sprinted forward, deathclaw slashing the robotic frames of two in one fell swoop, ducking under the blast of red where she'd just been standing. There was about ten of them on the bottom floor, the others shooting safely from the bottom of the stairwell, taking out chrome skeletal heads or disintegrating them entirely. The old synths were focused on the melee fighter, trying to blast her into red dust but she stepped and danced around them like a ballet dancer, kicking and clawing with vicious intent.

Dispatching that first group with ease, they rushed towards Bioscience. As they sprinted past the atrium, cutting between corridors that curved around the massive central area, Tessa barely caught sight of the elevator now twisted and wrent from some sort of explosion. It seemed the synths had destroyed it after all. White walls were now riddled with bullet holes and laser burns, some sections sloughing off like half melted plastic while others looked more befitting of the Commonwealth Wasteland on the surface. Everywhere she looked there was corpses and blood, the final moments of the Institute soaked in death.

They stomped over metal bones as they approached Bioscience, fighting more synths along the way but they weren't stopping to draw it out. They had a long way to go and not a lot of time to do it in. Cait hacked through anything that got in their way, everyone else gunning and running. Tessa shifted to the front besides Piper, they spread a bit so they weren't so in a line, hearts racing and breath coming quick. They grunted warnings, shouted alarms and swore violently at the waves of enemies that came at them.

Preston screamed when one laser caught his shoulder, Nick shoving him aside before the rest of the barrage could kill him. Deacon snarled with fury as he obliterated an old synth, only to be blasted in that bad side again. He swore even louder as he kicked away the offending synth, riddling it with bullets. Piper cried out in agony when a laser burned through her upper armor, revealing reddened freckled skin below. Tessa had promptly shot the head off the attacker. Cait, as always, ran and slashed, taking out whole groups while her companions covered her.

The doors of Bioscience were painted red by the time they finally reached them.

Rushing through the plant filled research center, ignoring the gorilla corpses which had begun to stink among the other debris, they reentered the old section of the Institute through the Cait-wrenched access hatch. The air somehow felt staler, despite the corpses that littered the way, robotic and organic both, the sentry bot's still smoking remains left where it had exploded. Cait sneered proudly at it. They'd made it back up to the platform when they encountered more synths, these ones ramshackled back together as if they'd tried repairing themselves.

The group descended on the synths like vultures. The synths did little against them, falling apart like broken toys. Tessa grimaced as they at last reached the door that would lead into the relay room, only for her heart to freeze. "It's collapsed!"

"Move!" Ordered Cait, springing to action. Rubble, presumably from the explosion that had taken out the elevator, blocked the way. The brawler heaved and pulled, trying to cut through it but it was too thick for her deathclaw gauntlet to easily dispose of. They were trapped. "Shit!"

Tessa looked between her companions, fear on exhausted faces. "We've got thirteen minutes," Nick said, glancing at his watch. "We gotta get that crap moved."

Tessa clenched her fists, trying to spot something that might help. Piper holstered her gun, trying to help Cait move the rubble, grunting out, "What if we used explosives?"

"Don't you remember what Desdemona said?" Interjected Deacon, "it could make the whole place collapse."

"We're about to blow up anyways," argued Preston. "I've got some grenades, we could plant them and shoot them from a distance."

Cait huffed as she tried to rip a large steel pylon away. "We best move through it quick!" She grunted, sawing through it with her gauntlet at a terribly slow pace.

"Okay do it," Tessa ordered, "everybody else let's move these old desks into a cover." They obeyed, hearts beating fast with terror as Nick announced they'd lost two minutes. They were so close, yet it felt as if they were miles away. As they moved the desks a terrible noise came from behind them, sharp warbled metallic voices dragging on broken glass and skeletal bodies. They sounded like thunder, shaking the decrepit corridors, drawing nearer with crimson death. "Behind us!" Shouted Tessa, whipping her shotgun around just in time to blast the plastic innards of a charging synth.

They screamed as they twisted, exposed to the wave of silver that ran up the stairs and pounced upon them. Some of the synths attacked them directly, trying to rip them to pieces with mechanical fingers, while others blasted red lasers, obliterating their own if they got in the way. Cait screamed as she found herself overwhelmed, lashes of blood trailing behind robotic claws as they attacked. Her scream pitched as they gave a certain tug on her gauntlet arm, the sound of it breaking heard just above the torrent of fighting. "Get that rubble clear!" Screamed Tessa at Preston, charging forward to slam into the synths atop Cait, blasting them with her shotgun until they were nothing but scrap.

Injecting her wounded friend with a stimpak, Tessa threw Cait's good arm around her shoulder, the redhead leaning into her with desperate breaths. Shooting with one hand, her aim now wildly off, Tessa carried Cait towards the others. "Preston!"

"I'm trying!" He shouted back, struggling to get a good shot when he kept getting blasted by lasers or bumped by others.

"Preston!" Screamed Piper as she injected herself with stimpak. A synth came at her, Nick helping kick it away while Deacon turned it to scrap.

"Five minutes!" Nick cried.

"Preston!" They shouted in unison. Then the grenades exploded, and everything became lost in a world of smoke and dust.

Tessa shielded Cait and Piper with her body as rubble came sailing outwards, the ruins shaking and trembling like a sinking ship. The moment she glanced up and saw light through the cloud of dust however, she grabbed tight to Cait and started running. "Go go go!" She ordered, the others coughing and scrambling behind her. Synths rushed after them, trying to drag them back into hell. Metal and concrete began to fall, destroying some of them as they screamed with unholy voices. Nick swore as he nearly joined his brethren, barely making it out in one piece.

Practically stumbling onto the blood slicked floor of the relay, Tessa rushed towards the orange circular teleporter. "Come on!" She shouted, "if we use whatever was the last coordinates it'll be better than here!"

"Three minutes!"

Heart pounding, Tessa grunted as Cait pushed off with her good arm and limped for the relay. Deacon, Preston and Piper all sprinted past her as the blonde stopped at the controls. Nick paused with her, shooting back while the others tried to cover her from the relay. "Stand still!" She ordered, "stop shooting or it'll tear you to pieces! Nick get your ass in there!"

"Not leaving you kid."

"You won't now move!" Begrudgingly he obeyed.

"Blue!" Shouted Piper, voice cracking.

Lasers chewed at her back, synths scrambling through rocks and shooting from the debris behind them. She punched the button, activating the relay. "I'm coming!" She rushed the small distance that felt miles away, ignoring the lasers that chewed through her armor, smoke trailing behind her. Then she noticed the bombs strapped to the edges of the relay, mental alarms ringing in her head but she didn't have the time to wonder. Turning on her heels, Tessa looked out at the synths crawling towards them, screaming like demons, yellow eyes burning cold hate.

Thunder roared and for half a second Tessa couldn't tell if it was the reactor or the relay. Every fiber of her being turned to lightning, blue and white of unbearable levels filling her vision, her blood screaming in terror. Then she saw nothing.

* * *

For a few solitary moments Tessa had no idea where they were. She simply stared at a horizon, dark clouds ambling past a few stars that peaked through the angry thunderheads. Mountains shrouded in night were far from her, the Charles River cut through the Boston ruins that were distorted with night. From way up there she could see the glow of Diamond City on the southern side of the river, calm and inviting. Then she looked around and spotted a logo of red on the wall, like an atom with an MF in the center. "Mass Fusion," she whispered, eyes widening as she moved closer to the railing keeping her from falling off, staring out across the Commonwealth.

"You made it!" Desdemona's voice came, "We-"

Her words were cut short as the spot Tessa knew the C.I.T. ruins rested grew a webbing of white and blue lines, spreading outwards between cracks of rocks, of buildings, and then it erupted outwards, a terrible whistling noise accompanying it that only grew with the light. Everything shook, Piper clutched Tessa's arm, Cait collapsing besides her. The whole building felt as if it might fall but Tessa stared, unable to bring herself to look away.

Then she was blinded, a burst of white light as the thermonuclear explosion reached the surface, ejecting itself outwards with an earsplitting roar like a beast of some eldritch nightmare. It was a thousand times greater than the Prydwen. A fireball came spewing forth as everything quaked, devil's breath vowing to bring them all to hell to burn with Shaun. Superheated air blasted them a split second before the screams of the damned Institute, most of the forces had shielded themselves, hiding against walls or against the ground. The concussive blast that followed knocked all but one to the floor.

Tessa stood like a sentinel, trembling, silent tears filling burning eyes. It looked like day, the fireball pluming heavenward, mushrooming slightly at the top but it's yield had been lessened by all the ground between the Institute and it. Tessa had no idea how deep the Institute had been, but it'd probably saved the Commonwealth from becoming the Glowing Sea. Clouds of dirt, dust and ash spread across Boston, debris flying and destroying anything in its way behind the megaton charged explosion. She couldn't see anything beneath it, just the tops of buildings now damaged once more, some falling beneath the clouds.

Piper screamed something she couldn't understand, the pinpricks of stimpaks in her leg doing little to heal her, hands tugging on her to force her down but she wouldn't budge. Radiation lashed outwards, heat and death behind them, geiger counters screaming nearby. Someone stabbed her with radaway, but she didn't care. She was bathed in it, witnessing what she'd wrought, transfixed in place at an all too familiar sight. It was just like being lowered into Vault 111.

It felt like the world was ending all over again.

She could hear voices, feel hands clasped with hers, one miniscule, one soft the other calloused. Then Piper held her hand, pulled against her, finally forcing her down and wrapping her arms around her as she cried. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, words lost in the roar of the explosion that still climbed into the sky, basking them in brilliant, deadly light. "I'm so sorry."


	9. Hope From The Ashes

**One Month Later**

 _BEEP!_

A slow line dragged across the monitor, wobbling up and down in gentle waves. The machine produced a constant noise, beeping soft and quiet but to the woman sitting besides the modified memory lounger, it was like thunder.

 _BEEP!_

She grimaced, clenching a hand while the other stroked the dog at her side. Dogmeat whimpered, shifting where he lay until she was brushing his wounded side. Tessa blinked down at her companion, catching the look in soulful brown eyes and sighed. "Sorry bud," she apologized, staring at the webbing of laser burns down his right side. Angry red patches on dark skin, the fur still not growing beyond a peach fuzz. Half of his right foreleg was gone, disintegrated by lasers and left with a burned stub just below the elbow. His new prosthetic, made from salvaged old synth parts, was a stark contrast to his dark fur.

It had been most fortunate that laser burns didn't cause bleeding, meaning that when Nat had found him, along with a destroyed Codsworth, he hadn't lost any blood while he lay lamed on the ground. The young girl had been playing nearby with a few other kids when she heard the chaos of fighting from within Tessa's home. As she's told Tessa later, she'd waited for the noises to stop before peaking in to see what had happened. Piper's younger sister had cried when she saw Codsworth blasted apart, his processor smashed to pieces to assure there was no coming back from the grave for him, with a wounded Dogmeat nearby. Thankfully Doctor Sun had managed to keep the hound alive, and with some help from Sturges, Sanctuary's local mechanic, working with Tinker Tom, Dogmeat had found himself on all four feet again, albeit one metal and plastic rather than flesh and bone.

He hadn't left Tessa's side since, huffing and growling with anxiety if she got out of his sight. Unlike before however, Tessa wasn't doing quite near the amount of exploring. Instead, she'd spent most of the past month either in Castle, coordinating with the Minutemen and Railroad on the hunt for the Institute, or there in the basement of the Memory Den in Goodneighbor, at Curie's side.

 _BEEP!_

Slowly her gaze drifted from the german shepherd to the various monitors attached to the memory lounger. The machines were probably all the was keeping Curie alive. She was hooked up to more medical machines than Tessa had seen in a long time. Doctor Amari had mentioned she'd had the equipment brought to her after a scavenger looted an old mercenary gang hideout with its own fully stocked clinic. Of course the radaway and stimpaks were long gone, but the vital machinery was well worth the cost. Tessa couldn't have thanked her enough for her generosity, but she knew there would be a hefty tab when Curie awoke. As much as kindness might motivated Doctor Amari, it was expensive to keep Curie alive and Tessa more than understood.

Curie slept within the memory tube, a respirator over her face, but even without being able to see her mouth Tessa knew she wasn't in pain. Instead, Curie was more like a powered down machine, waiting peacefully for a set of orders to awaken her. It killed Tessa to think of her like that, but it was all she could imagine. That she was merely sleeping, waiting, that when they'd recovered her mind she'd simply open her eyes, smile, and all would be right.

 _BEEP!_

"Fuck." Tessa pinched her brow, turning away from Curie entirely and look back at her canine companion. Dogmeat whimpered, shifting a bit closer, and she returned to stroking him. "C'mon boy," she urged, rising to her feet. "I need some fresh air." It hurt so very much to see Curie like that, knowing she couldn't fix her until the Institute was found, feeling helpless as more and more the survivors of the scientifically advanced faction eluded them. Dogmeat scrambled to his feet behind her, the heavy scraping noise of his new leg against broken tiles following her up the railingless wooden stairs into the Memory Den proper.

She ignored the memory loungers, some in use while other not, and Irma where she was perched on her fanciful couch, draped in beautiful black feathers and a red corset dress. Irma waved after the fellow blonde, but Tessa could only manage a half wave in response as they reached the double doors. Pushing it open, Tessa grunted when sunlight warmed her face, wincing and lowering her gaze to the dirty asphalt street of Goodneighbor. When her eyes finally adjusted, she blinked around the one block settlement.

Discarded Nuka-Cola bottles mixed with other refuse in the gutter, a slow moving stream from the morning rain carrying the lighter filth into the sewers below. Cigarette smoke burned her nose when she inhaled the afternoon air, a watchman stubbing out his cigarette before carrying on his patrol, toting a sub machine gun a bit too aggressively for her liking. A little girl tussled with a boy over a toy, only for a stray dog to snatch it and run down an alleyway, both of them chasing with shouts and shaken fists. The dull buzz of streetlights mixed with shouts and stomping of feet, various traders or drifters wandering the secure little town. Standing under the Memory Den awning cast Tessa in a red glow, warm and inviting even in the day.

A tanned woman approached Tessa from the Third Rail, familiar and dangerous, arms wide as if in shock. "There's that loca chickita!" She said with a laugh, friendly but not too warm. "Been some time since I've seen you, I got a little scared my best customer ran off and got herself killed."

"Hey Mel," she greeted, drawing a cigarette and lighting it. "What're you doing out of your shop?"

"Well I do live here," she replied easily, voice thick and charming, "got a bite to eat at the Third Rail. I hear you've been dwelling in the Memory Den, but I thought it was just more gossip since I haven't seen your lovely face around." She crossed her arms, squinting hazel blues. "You need a hit? I just finished a fresh batch of your favorite."

Tessa sighed, focusing on the cigarette. "I don't use anymore," she said firmly, not giving the dealer a chance to sway her mind.

"Oh?" Melony arched a brow, "you so sure about that?" She wasn't accusing, dripping with disbelief yet she didn't make Tessa bristle any further. Instead Tessa averted her gaze. "I see… Didn't expect that, but I suppose after you stopped coming… Almost thought you'd started dealing yourself if you hadn't died."

"Yeah well, that shit nearly killed me." She blew a thick cloud of smoke away from Melony, trying not to be rude but not interested in the conversation. "I'm never touching anything stronger than med-x again."

Melony watched her, trying to figure out if she was lying no doubt, before giving a crooked smile. "Well I do sell that, stimpaks and radaway too," she said, "don't be afraid to come by."

"The lady said no," came a raspy voice, like rocks and thick whiskey.

The pair blinked over at the mayor of Goodneighbor, one John Hancock. In the afternoon light his flamboyantly red patriotic outfit, tri-hat, frills and all, was a bit more bearable. Wrinkled, irradiated skin an orangey hue was twisted in a frown, dark eyes, sclera and all, glaring at Melony who gave a smirk. "Ai díos, I wasn't doing anything wrong Hancock," she purred.

"Maybe not wrong, but you should skidaddle back to your shop," he said firmly, warning in the ghoul's voice, "who knows how long it can go unmanned before an addict tries to break in."

Melony squinted a bit, lips thinning just a little before the smooth smile returned and she started walking away, winking at Tessa as she went. "Do stop by when you get a chance."

The pair watched her turn down an alleyway, one of the many little cutaway from the block. Hancock looked at the rattled blonde, gestured for a cigarette and lit it once she'd given him one. "You're out," he remarked between drags.

"Needed some air," she grunted, "Dogmeat needed to pee." She gestured to the hound at her side. He hadn't moved the entire exchange.

"He pees sitting down now?" Asked Hancock, arching a hairless brow. "I guess those goons did worse on him than just his leg huh?"

Tessa sighed, pinching her nose. "What's up?" She asked, looking him directly in the eyes. "Something else go wrong?"

"I'm not always the bearer of bad news," he laughed, shaking his head. "Sometimes it's just… news."

She scoffed, took another drag, and then sighed. A hand ran through short blonde hair, grimacing as she realized how long it'd been since she'd washed. She used to shower every day and now she was lucky to get a bath in once a week. Tessa winced, realizing once more she was thinking about _her_ like that, as if they were one and the same. Reminding herself that this was always how her life had been, Tessa gave a ragged cough. "Sorry I'm just… yeah."

He frowned, pity in his voice when he spoke, "You alright there sister? I know it's been a hard… well everything."

"Curie hasn't shown any signs of changing," Tessa confessed, "which on one hand is good since she's not getting worse but…"

"You want your girl to wake up," he finished for her, "I get it. Stressful stuff that. Any leads on those scientists?" He was careful with his words. While she couldn't stop the Minutemen from spreading tales that the Institute hadn't been fully defeated, she didn't want the story to get too spread. Even Piper had kept it out of her latest paper, _The Boogeyman Banished?_ , that the Institute hadn't been fully defeated. Instead she'd focused on the battle, of the valiant sacrifices of the Minutemen and Railroad, of how through that the Institute (or at least the facility) had been destroyed. She was pretty sure everybody knew at least a little, couldn't quite believe the Institute was gone, but until they were dealt with, one way or another, Tessa didn't want the story getting out and causing a panic.

Then again the giant crater where the CIT ruins once stood was a pretty strong proof that the Institute was gone. All that was left was a river flooded hole too deep for anyone to really explore, and a massive cloud of radiation that made it all the more dangerous. Despite her hope to make the Commonwealth a safer place, it had become overrun with feral ghouls and super mutants, flocking to the miniature Glowing Sea, a constant green hue to the area that fortunately didn't go much further than two miles around.

"Whispers," she grumbled, "but nothing concrete."

The ghoul mayor sighed, took off his hat and waved himself with it. "Right right… Those bastards sure know how to hide." Tessa eyed him carefully, wondering just what had brought him over to her. Before she'd gotten mixed with the Railroad she and the mayor of Goodneighbor had become friends of a sort, both a bit too busy with their respective lives to spend much time together, but when they happened to cross paths it was always enjoyable. She and her friends had spent a couple good nights getting drunk in the Third Rail and sleeping it off in Hancock's room in the Old State House above the Third Rail. Though for Tessa, that usually meant puking into a bucket with Curie patting her back all night.

A part of her wondered if he might've influenced her to take chems, given his disposition. She certainly appreciated his respect for her decision to get clean however. Even if they disagreed on some things they could at least live and let be. He was a good friend, certainly not as close as Cait or Nick, but she trusted him and couldn't thank him enough for the generosity he was showing her. Whenever she couldn't be around Curie, her duties as the General of the Minutemen or as agent Bullseye requiring her to leave, he'd posted his personal guard Fahrenheit in the Memory Den's basement to calm Tessa's nerves on leaving her behind.

Piper visited as often as she could, but with the recent discovery that Mayor McDonough truly was a synth spy she'd been needed in Diamond City, calming minds and working on fixing the inherently broken city. With the new government, both the lower and upper stands electing two officials each to a council, Piper was busy helping sort things out when she wasn't hunting down any clues for the Institute with Tessa. She missed having her love around, but she understood that the world didn't stand still for them.

Meanwhile Cait and MacCready visited at least twice a week, but after MacCready's injury he'd decided to spend more time with his son Duncan. An old friend of his took care of Duncan while he was working with Tessa, the very same that had been looking after him while he was sick and MacCready searching for a cure. Tessa had heard him talking about moving Duncan to Diamond City now that he was healthy and the Commonwealth safer, but declined Tessa's offer of him moving in given Cait and he would need some privacy, on top of how crowded it would be with six of them and a dog. When they weren't visiting Duncan however, and after their wounds had healed, the pair were as determined to hunt down the Institute as everybody else.

Nick hadn't taken any jobs since, focused entirely on the hunt for the Institute. He'd actually found a few promising leads, but ultimately it's amounted to nothing but dead ends. She appreciated everything he was doing, but some days she worried Nick was going to short circuit. As far as she knew he hadn't gotten himself mixed up in the mess that was Mayor McDonough's death, not like the Institute paranoid people of Diamond City would let him have a say in their government.

It had been quite a shock when she'd told Hancock about Diamond City's recent change of leadership, and he could only mutter on about how his brother was dead. As much as a rift had existed between them, Hancock and his brother, formerly the mayor before his replacement, had been just that, brothers. So the pair had grown closer as friends, with Tessa helping him cope with the true loss of his brother, no chance at reconciliation now, and Hancock assisting as much as he could with Curie. She respected him, appreciated all he was doing for her, but some days she couldn't understand the ghoul one bit.

He dropped the cigarette, stomping it into dust before flicking a hand. "C'mon sister, got something to show ya."

"What?" She questioned as she followed, the pair crossing the street and passing the Third Rail, headed towards the gated entrance of Goodneighbor. "What's was that news you mentioned earlier?"

"Something… unique. I wanted to see how you were doing first," he replied, Dogmeat at her side as always. "Fahrenheit is watching him," he added over his shoulder.

"Watching who?" She scowled, a bit annoyed now, as they rounded the Third Rail and the town opened up to the entrance. It was an old courtyard cut in half by the gate, a hodgepodge of metal and wood, with a half wall of stone still encircling what was the center once upon a time. Sitting on that half wall and chatting the ear off Fahrenheit was a boy with bright blonde hair and dark eyes, freckles dusting his pale features.

"I've only met my mom twice but I know she loves me because she told me so!" He was saying, smiling up at the rough and tumble looking woman who was doing her best not to roll her eyes. "She's super smart and strong and stops bad guys!" He gestured wildly, legs kicking constantly, unable to keep still. "She blew up the Institute! Do you know who they were? Spooky scientists who did all sorts of stuff and teleported to people and snatched them up for experiments! I used to live with them, and some of them weren't bad but they always acted weird and-"

"Shaun?"

He turned to her, eyes widening as his smile grew. Tessa's jaw dropped slightly, trembling as she stared at the boy who slid down from the half wall. Shaun took a few steps towards her, then paused, hesitation slipping across the boy's face. "Mom?"

She crossed the distance in two seconds, wrapping her arms around the boy and twirling him around, clutching him desperately. "Shaun!" She nearly screamed, voice cracking, tears welling in her eyes.

"Momma!" He exclaimed, hugging her just as tightly back. When she put him back on the ground she was shaking, caressing his face and grabbing his shoulder as she hunched down. "I found you!"

"h-How is this possible?"

"Doctor Li told me to find you! I went to Sanctuary at first, but nobody had seen you in a while but they said you had a house at a movie lot? That's cool, you lived on a movie lot! But when I got there it was just burned down!" Shaun replied excitedly. "So I went to the big green place everybody was talking about, Diamond City! But I couldn't find you anywhere there so I asked the nice girl at the paper place and she told me you'd be here and then I found you!"

"Doctor Li?" Balked Tessa, "Why would she- what? You did all that by yourself?"

He smiled, innocent and bright. "Because she needs your help!" He proclaimed, "And that's what you do right? Help people?" He then stepped back, dark eyes wide as moons and smiled at Dogmeat who wagged his tail in excitement. "Woah! You've got a dog! Can I play with him?"

"Sure Shaun, but we need to talk first."

"Good luck sister," Hancock said, patting her shoulder before he and Fahrenheit walked away. Tessa waved after them absentmindedly, mind still trying to catch up with reality.

Shaun nodded, focusing his attention on Tessa but it was obvious Dogmeat was wearing his discipline down. Eyes flickered between the eager hound and back, clearly torn. "Of course Mom," he said, jumping back up on the half wall. Shaun was dressed strangely to Tessa, if only for the fact that he looked like a normal kid. He wore a too large faded Nuka-Cola colored shirt with the logo, billowing over his belt like an inflated plastic bag and tucked into slightly torn jeans. The smile he wore made her heart twist with confusion and joy.

"How did you get here? The Commonwealth is a dangerous place, much too dangerous for just a kid," said Tessa with worry, checking him over now for any wounds but he was only dirty.

"Oh I wasn't alone! Doctor Li gave me a really cool metal friend, one of the old synths!" He frowned a bit, pulling at the large shirt. "Your friends in Sanctuary didn't like him though, he kinda got destroyed."

"So how did you get here?"

"Oh!" He brightened, and pointed over to a pack brahmin along the wall Tessa hadn't noticed, a tall dark haired asian woman in heavy leather guarding it. The woman stared at the pair of blondes intently, emotionless yet there was an intensity in mocha eyes that made her heart freeze. "That caravan let me tag along! The guard lady doesn't talk much but Teresa, the merchant, is really nice!" He pointed to where a very short Hispanic woman was discussing with KL-E-0 in the gun store Kill or Be Killed. "She told me lots of stories about the Commonwealth along the way, and even gave me a sweet roll! Oh and these clothes!"

Tessa frowned softly, thinking on his words and not liking the look of the guard, before sighing softly. "I'll have to thank her," she said, "did Teresa ask you for any payment?"

He gave a firm shake of his head. "Nope! She said it was to repay you for something… related to a judge I think?" He scrunched his nose with thought. "What's a judge?"

Tessa furrowed her brow, looking at the traveling merchant who was smirking over her shoulder at her from the shop. She struggled with placing her for a few moments, before it clicked and she smiled back. "Judge Zeller was a very bad man," she explained to Shaun who only seemed more confused by the exchange. "He was hurting the people of Bunker Hill, like her parents, and I stopped him."

"Woah!" Shaun exclaimed, "You really are a hero!"

Wincing, she tried to calm him. "Not always." Then she focused upon Shaun. "Where's the Institute? You escaped with them before its destruction right?"

"Yeah!" He smiled, pulling his freckles face in a manner that made Tessa want to embrace him once more. "It was really scary, everybody was shouting how we needed to leave and then Father gave me a holotape and said no matter what I couldn't lose it, or something really bad would happen. I don't know why he didn't come with us, I mean I think I know but nobody would tell me for sure. He looked really sick though." He paused, frowning as a bit of sadness crossed the synthetic boy's face. It felt so contradictory to his upbeat personality. "He's dead isn't he? When the Institute blew up?"

"Yes."

He sighed, kicking his legs a bit slower. "I figured. It's nice to actually know though. But uh- here." He ruffled though a backpack settled on the ground next to him, Nuka-Cola themed just like his shirt. "Father told me to give this to you." He offered her an orange holotape, no markings on it to tell her what it was but it was new, undamaged unlike most things in the Commonwealth.

Tessa found herself trembling when she took it. She slid it into her Pip-Boy, glanced around the courtyard and moved over to the nearby bench facing Daisy's shop. Shaun followed after her, hopping onto the worn wood seat, kicking his legs with excitement and oblivious to what it might just mean. When she activated the tape, Tessa's breath nearly stopped entirely. Shaun, the Director, coughed and gagged as he spoke, words thick with pain but not the anger she expected. Instead, it was disappointment, desperate and pleading but sadness was in every word.

"If you are hearing this… then I am dead. However I passed, be you betraying me or siding with me, I am now gone. Whatever happened between us is over. If I was given the chance I revealed to you your true nature. I am sure you have many questions. Alas, I no longer have the strength to give you them myself. In the event you betrayed me, Madison Li has been instructed to send this boy, who has been re-programmed to believe himself your son, to find you and give you this. Otherwise it should have been waiting for you on my desk. On it are coordinates for the facility in which you were created. You were my best kept secret.

"I must ask you something, which I can only hope you hold a fraction of your claimed compassion. This child, synth as he may be, is real. He will never grow old, he will not wither away like I. Neither will you. I needn't pretend with you anymore, save face to keep the Institute content. Synths are the future. You, are the future, and so is this child. So I ask you look into your heart and find it in yourself to take care of him. He deserves to live. Given how you must feel about me I doubt you will heed my request, but do not take any anger you may possess out on the boy, he is innocent. Please, for all you've done, do this good. Save this life."

Father's voice cut out, and the green screen of her Pip-Boy lit up with a set of new coordinates, way out to the north outside of the Commonwealth itself. It blinked, Tessa staring in awe, as a little marker set itself. There they were, the missing scientists, and the answers she so desperately wanted, no more than three days of walking north.

"Mom?"

Tessa blinked at Shaun, trying to wrap her head around what she'd just listened to. He looked at her with uncertainty, trying to understand what was said just as well, and all she saw before her was her son. She didn't really know what was her and what was the old Tessa, the memories she'd thought her own, but in that moment she knew for certain she wanted to protect him as if he truly was her son, as if he was he one she remembered bringing into the world. Maybe that was why Father had made him, a means of having that family he never would, living on in some way through him.

She couldn't understand why she was made just yet, but it seemed fitting, at least part of it. There was no way she'd been made for just a sentimental thing such as that, Father was far from that kind of person, but she could see some sort of logic. Shaun had to have been more personal, yet testing the limits, seeing what could be made. The fact that Shaun was a version of Father was where the lines blurred but surely he had a specific purpose, a reason for his creation. Then it clicked, and Tessa laughed softly, painful and bittersweet. "Mankind redefined, from genetic makeup to family units, Father had meant to change everything."

Pulling Shaun into a tight embrace, Tessa struggled with controlling herself. Everything was a mess, the hope she'd nearly let go resurging, making her shake and whisper in Shaun's ear how everything was going to be alright, that she would never let him get hurt. Dogmeat whimpered, shoving his nose between them until at last the dog got the affection he desired. "Can I play with your dog now?" Shaun asked when she pulled back.

Snickering, Tessa looked around until she found a discarded roll of newspaper, one of Piper's even, and began to wave it in an enticing manner. Dogmeat jumped to all four, barking and wagging his tail. "Let's play some fetch, he loves this!" She said, joy and hope filling her for the first time in months. Shaun laughed, watching the hound chase the roll of paper as it went flying across the courtyard. Tessa watched as the boy took it back from Dogmeat, giggling and playing with her scarred dog.

So much was still messed up, things that needed to be sorted, fixed, understood. But for a few minutes, standing in a town that knew pain, suffering and freedom, all she could feel was hope. "I'm coming for you Curie," she whispered, before joining Shaun, laughing and playing with her son.


	10. Revelations

**Three Days Later**

"You know this could be a trap, right?" Nick asked around a cigarette, yellow optics staring at their leader.

"That's why I brought all of you," Tessa replied simply, trying to keep her nerves from showing.

"And not a whole army?"

Tessa frowned, looking over those who had come with her to the secret Institute bunker. MacCready and Cait we're finishing off a canteen of water, rolling shoulders and stretching as they readied for what lay within. Piper double checked her ammo besides Deacon, the sunglasses wearing man trying to convince her he'd once fought off a deathclaw with only a pen, but she only laughed and shook her head.

Preston was scanning the horizon, laser musket raised for any sign of trouble. Dogmeat rubbed against her leg, whining needily for a scratch behind the ear. His tail wagged as she obliged. "Not like we don't have backup," she said, looking at her prototype synth friend, "the standby militia will move in if we don't radio back in a day. The Institute won't get away again… but if there's a chance for peace first I'm taking it."

"Right which is why we're not going in guns blazing," he said, "I understand. There's a lot of unknowns going in, could be nothing more than empty labs, or it could be filled with coursers waiting for revenge."

"If they wanted me dead they could have killed me at any time this past month," she countered, "they knew where I'd be."

"We crippled them, maybe that spy network is gone like their home," he suggested, "or maybe they're so weak right now they couldn't make a move against you even if they wanted, which I'm quite sure they do."

Tessa frowned, distracting herself for a moment as she soothed the whining Dogmeat. "Madison Li is the one who helped Father build me," she said, the others turning their attention to her. Her voice sounded a bit more emotional than she'd have liked, nerves electrified and butterflies trapped within her chest. She hadn't stopped thinking about what lay ahead since Shaun gave her the holotape, so many possibilities filling her mind, drowning her in what ifs. "If anyone knows why he built me it's her. I can't miss this chance. I also know that if they really do have Curie's mind down there, what's to keep them from destroying her if we go in swinging?" She caught a few thoughtful grimaces, small shrugs of agreement from her friends. They had their doubts she suspected, but they believed in her enough to have come when she asked.

"Madison isn't Institute, not really. She's from Washington D.C. to the south and used to work with the Brotherhood of Steel," Tessa went on, "I'm not sure when she left but she wasn't part of them when they came here. I don't think she ever was truly part of the Brotherhood of Steel either from the way she talked about them."

"What does that mean?" Asked MacCready, he had to focus on her intensely when she spoke, his left ear a twisted ruin of laser burns and explosive damage too far gone to hear from it. "That she's special?"

"Anytime Madison and I spoke in private she would mention her disgust at the selfishness of the Institute. She hated that they weren't doing anything to help the people on the surface when they had so much technology available to them. She might still believe that. Justin Ayo would rather we all die. The other two… they just want to protect their own. If we're going to get through to whatever leadership is left, Madison is our best chance and she's the one who sent Shaun."

"Why'd she even do that?" Questioned Deacon. "Your kid said she needed help, but what kind of help could _you,_ the enemy, bring?"

"I wish I knew, I could only guess."

"Then guess."

Frowning, Tessa tried to articulate the mess of jumbled thoughts that swirled in her mind. "It has to be Father's plan, or one of them. From the recording it sounded like he only had the one tape, so even if I betrayed him or truly allied myself with the Institute, I was supposed to get it. Maybe it's a trap since I turned on them, maybe it would have been genuine if I'd become Director. I don't know." She looked at the hatch obscured by rocks and brush, lingering on the new metal rather than the rusted warped kind that belonged to the Commonwealth.

Turning back to her friends, she refused to let uncertainty fill her voice even as it filled her heart. "What I do know is that I help people. We help people. The Minutemen, the Railroad, the Valentine Detective Agency, Publique Occurrences… even you two, Cait and MacCready, given you follow me along. We all want to make this shithole we call home a better place, and this… this could be how. If we don't give peace a chance then all we'll ever know is war, and the world has had enough of that."

"Ya wanna make friends with them?" Challenged Cait, "After everything they've done? After Curie?"

"Curie was Father. Not the Institute."

"But-"

"Cait," interrupted MacCready, holding her hand, "she has a point. How many of those scientists really knew what they were doing or had a say in anything? Sometimes you work for somebody terrible and don't even realize it." He frowned in memory. "Other times you do but you're too scared to try and leave or make a change."

She grimaced, only partially convinced. "I just dont think we're meeting a peace party. Li wants something from ya, simple as that."

"Kinda hard to trust her after everything else," added Piper, "but I hope we can resolve this without more death."

"General," said Preston, Tessa's gaze lingered on the long scar he now had bisecting his right brow. It was another physical reminder of the pain she'd caused her friends and the lengths they were willing to go for her. Between it, MacCready's ear, Dogmeat's leg, and Nick's missing patches of skin she wasn't sure if she should feel gratitude or guilt. "I admire your desire to resolve this without further bloodshed. The Minutemen are still pretty hurt from the Institute Battle, the less they need to get involved the better."

"I know I'm asking for a lot here," she said slowly, "but I couldn't do this without you. It means so much that you're all here." For a moment she imagined a few others; Codsworth, Danse, Curie, a hole aching within her chest and closed her eyes. "Thank you."

Piper stepped forward and intertwined their fingers, squeezing her hand and smiling earnestly. "Of course Blue." The others gave similar affirmatives, Cait clapping her shoulder, MacCready giving a thumbs up while Preston tipped his new hat, not near as revolutionary style as his old one. Nick grunted and stubbed out his cigarette, crushing it underfoot before smiling at her. Deacon simply nodded, but the smirk he wore made her fear ebb away. Dogmeat barked happily, blissfully unaware of what she'd truly said but something about it helped alleviate the pressure within her along with the others.

Truly she had no idea what she'd do without them, these people that kept her sane and alive. She couldn't help but wonder if Father had anticipated she'd make such close friends, or if it'd been another way she'd deviated from their meticulously planned experiment. It was a bit of a comforting thought, something that made her feel more like her own person, if only in a small way.

"Ready?" Piper asked, examining her closely.

Tessa stared at the hatch, a thousand fears rising up her, her heart racing so quick it might burst. _Curie is in there._ She found her strength and gave a brisk nod, moving towards the hatch with the others right behind her. It came open with a bit of lockpicking, Tessa catching Piper's gaze flickering up from her rump when she lifted it and turned for the others to enter. Once upon a time Piper might've looked away with embarrassment but they'd certainly progressed beyond that, instead getting an approving wink that made her blush. "Ya two are terrible," commented Cait.

"You and MacCready could flirt if you wanted," Piper teased back, the man perking expectantly. "We wouldn't mind."

Cait glanced at him, MacCready giving a smile, and blew him a kiss before entering the hatch. He laughed, and followed her swiftly. "I would," drawled Deacon as he and Nick followed.

"Too bad," replied Piper, winking at Tessa who blushed deeper, before slipping in behind Preston. Dogmeat whined at Tessa's side, once more refusing to leave her side. She cleared her throat, appreciating Piper's attempt at soothing everyone's nerves with a good bit of banter, but it'd set her nerves alight in an entirely different manner.

Urging Dogmeat to move, she entered the hatch. There was a small stairway that lead into a rectangular room, more new metal just a few feet into the dirt. They fanned out into it, weapons readied for any surprises or traps. Across the way was a singular terminal mounted to the wall, a pair of doors, and nothing else within the small room. Nick and she approached it carefully, and together they'd hacked in. It was about as tough as she'd expected of an Institute computer, but not near as difficult as Father's private terminal had been.

"Alright so… door controls, elevator controls and… a map?" Tessa frowned as she clicked onto the image file, a blueprint of the facility loading up. She quickly plugged her Pip-Boy in, downloading the file and brought it up in her maps while Nick focused on the green screen.

"This place is pretty big," he remarked, squinting at a series of rooms labeled 'experiment #' from one through twenty. "Some kind of testing facility?"

"It's got a quarters, storage, eating area, restrooms… it's like a vault only smaller."

"A vault?" Piper questioned skeptically, "What they built their own?"

"Maybe… it's got a reactor, not as high tech as their main facility but it's almost half the size of this place."

"Maybe that's why Father wasn't so broken up about losing their home," suggested Deacon with a sneer, walking over to look at the screen too. "They had another one waiting."

"I'm not too sure…" Nick said, trailing off as he squinted, pointing at one area. "There's a relay room but it doesn't have near enough power sources and it's half the size of the other."

"How can ya tell that?" Asked Cait.

"Desdemona let me look at the schematics of the old one while we were waiting for Grey to arrive at the Imperial, and this isn't the same."

"Receiving end only?" Suggested Preston.

"What's the point of that?" Questioned Piper.

Tessa frowned deeper, trying to make sense of the blueprints. "Nick, try to summon the elevator," she ordered.

"Can't. Manually disabled from below."

"The other door, the stairwell?"

"Same."

"That's what's Cait's for. Whatever's down there isn't supposed to get out." Tessa gestured to her Pip-Boy's screen and drew MacCready and Preston over. She was quite glad to have it back, its many uses would no doubt prove vital to their mission. According to Cliff, the agent who'd escorted it to Sanctuary to lure Father into meeting her there, five coursers had ambushed her at the bridge leading into the town. It had been a grueling battle, but eventually she'd used her climbing and stealth skills to escape them. After the destruction of the Institute, Tinker Tom and Sturges had cleaned it of any Institute bugs. Even now Tessa wasn't certain the coursers wouldn't have just killed her if it had been her.

"Looks like the stairs lead out into this testing area," pointed out MacCready, "No idea what all this fancy stuff means but it seems important."

"It could be dangerous," Tessa said as she lowered her Pip-Boy. "Be ready. Cait?"

"On it," she grunted, punching the metal door with the deathclaw gauntlet and wrenching it until there was enough of an opening for them to slip through. Cait was at the head, ready as ever, while the rest filed behind her and moved down the stairwell. They curved five stories down, only the soft green glow of Tessa's Pip-Boy and MacCready's flashlight illuminating their path in the otherwise pitch black metal stairwell. Their steps echoed down it, Dogmeat's metal leg the loudest among them. The canine had no idea how ill-at-ease it made them, reminding them of the gen one synths chasing them, of death just a breath behind them. Once at the bottom they found it locked just the same. With a bit of effort Cait wrenched it open, and they filled out into a long corridor.

According to Tessa's map, it was the central hallway with several offshoot to small experimental rooms lining the way. "Nothing on the radar…" Tessa said slowly, taking in the sterile clean air, a soft drone from power reaching her ears. Soft emergency lights ran along the floor, interspersed between doors with terminals and dark glass windows. Piper approached the nearest window, squinting in but it was too dark to make anything out.

"What kind of tests could they have been running down here?" Questioned Piper, reaching for the access panel before thinking better of it. "Think there's an alarm?"

"Should be a control room at the end of the hall," said Nick, "good place to look."

Tessa walked slowly through the hall, boots loud on metal floors. Her skin was crawling, mind foggy with a sense of deja vu as they progressed through. It was like walking through a dream, everything heavy and slow. She could hear the soft murmurs of the others, but nothing truly clicked, like a whisper in the back of her mind rather than her friends talking just a foot away. A weight filled her chest as something caught her gaze passing another window, glowing within the testing chamber. "Blue?" Piper questioned, only half listened to as Tessa pressed her hand to the access panel, and the door came open. "You sure it's a good idea?"

"No."

There was a light switch just inside that Tessa flipped. The glow had come from a terminal which sat upon a desk across a workroom that instantly struck Tessa in the gut. "I know this place," she whispered. Various tools were set up across the bench besides the terminal, a pristine radio was on the desk next to it. A disassembled pistol rested on the bench, manuals and diagrams surrounded it with dirty rags on the linoleum floor. The walls were the same plastic like metal many buildings were made of before the bombs dropped.

A singular window, in the same spot the viewing window would be, gazed out to a beautiful idyllic neighborhood. Trees rustled in a gentle wind, hear heart quaking at the sight. She'd almost forgotten what true trees looked like. Only upon close examination did she realize it was a screen, everything upon it a looped feed, another fake.

"The hell is this?" Piper asked, standing at her side. Others watched from the door, on extreme guard. Dogmeat sniffed at the rags, soulful brown eyes looking up at Tessa and he whined softly. "Blue?"

"Nate's workshop."

Piper bristled besides her, hazel eyes wide. "What?"

"Nate would show me how to disassemble weapons back here," she explained, voice shaking, "this was at his parents' house, when we were engaged." It felt as if she had walked into the past, everything in the exact places she remembered yet it was all wrong. It shouldn't have existed. She typed on the terminal, her breath catching in her throat at the message upon it.

 **Tessa,**

 **I know you were expecting me to meet you here but something came up. I'll be back this evening. In the meantime go ahead and practice with the pistol. Soon enough we'll have you field stripping them quicker than me! You'll pass that certification test with no problem.**

 **Love,**

 **Nate**

"Blue?"

Tessa blinked at Piper, pulled into reality if only for a moment. "I thought Nate taught me… her… whoever, how to work a weapon. How to handle it and maintain them. I thought that was real."

"But this? You remember this?"

"Clear as day. This was the first time I put a pistol together by myself, Nate was so proud of me! Every detail is right but none of this should be here!" The target from when he took her to the range was hung proudly on the wall by safety reminders and a love letter from Tessa to Nate. There was a bullet hole in the wall from the time she misfired. Everything was exactly as it should have been, and that fact upset her more than anything else.

"But that's… that's crazy. They made this up?"

The suggestion was like a brick to the face. Tessa stumbled back into the terminal, catching herself on the desk, Piper grabbing her to hold her up, Dogmeat whimpering at her side. "Is that what these are? These experiment rooms?" She hissed in confusion. "They created memories?"

Piper frowned. "Maybe they recreated them? Maybe they were real and they… wanted to alter them?"

"Doctor Amari can view individual dreams, can let you see them again, and that's one scientist who's not even in the Institute. What the fuck can they do?" She looked up at Nick, yellow optics watching her anxiously from the doorway. "Nick."

"Hey kid."

"Your memories were copied from another, and there's no chance they were altered. None whatsoever?"

"You know I've lost bits and pieces… but no I don't think so, none of old Nick's anyways. That was over a hundred years ago though, who can say what they've developed since. I mean damn is that a _colored_ screen? There no telling what we're gonna find in here."

"Okay…" Tessa said shakily, trying not to lose her mind only one room in but this discovery was more than enough to set most over the edge. "Okay okay okay."

"Blue…"

"I'm okay." She was lying straight through her teeth. "I need to check the others," Tessa said, "I need to see what else is here. What other memories might be… might be from here."

"That might set off an alarm," said MacCready with worry.

"We've already opened one," countered Deacon, "and this is pretty important to learn. Maybe we should wait until after we've saved Curie though."

"Control room probably has records, cameras, something to tell us what the others are," suggested Preston, the others nodding in agreement. They all looked through the doorway at Tessa who trembled in the center of the workshop. The mighty General of the Minutemen and Agent Bullseye looked incredibly small, holding herself, face lowered and teeth gritted. Piper placed a hand upon her shoulder, trying to comfort her. She only trembled more.

It wasn't quite shock that rose up her body, the initial startling realization washing over her and fading away. It wasn't fear either, though she certainly feared what they might discover deeper in. No what she felt was a stir deep within that made her blood boil and hands twitch to her pistol. She wanted to tear the place apart, to break it down one piece at a time until she knew exactly how they had created her. She knew now she hadn't simply been created like the synths she'd seen, woven together bone by bone on a machine. They'd experimented on her, tweaking her again and again until they got her just right.

She felt violated.

"Is anyone there?" A voice came from down the dark corridor, tinny like aluminum, warbling with age. The voice of an old gen synth, only it wasn't as mechanical as previously encountered ones, instead an eerie familiar tone. The group snapped their attention down to where the mechanical being stood weaponless, the emergency lights faintly reflecting on its form. Yellow optics stared at them. "Hello?"

"I don't like this," whispered Preston, each of them slowly backing down the corridor the way they came. Dogmeat's growl only added to the sense of unease.

"It's green," Tessa informed them, meaning at least for the moment it wasn't hostile. She hastily flipped the light switch back off.

"Is anyone there?"

"Move back, don't let it alert the others," Deacon instructed in a whisper, himself ducking into the opened room. It's metal feet clanked as it approached. Tessa held her breath, watching it draw nearer on her radar while the others snuck away. Dogmeat let out a low growl, stepping around Tessa who grabbed his collar. The hound stopped, hackles raised, ready to defend her. Piper's hand pressed against her back, hidden behind her. Deacon stood just within the doorway, clutching a knife in hand. They pressed against the wall to keep it from instantly seeing them once it entered.

The second its chrome head appeared within the room Deacon surged forward with trained expertise, jamming his knife into a spot on the back of its head while simultaneously taking out its legs. It crumpled to the floor loudly, and he stomped its skull with enough force that circuits spilled out like brain matter. "Nice," praised Piper, Deacon twirling the knife before sliding it back into its sheath. "But there's no way there's only one."

"We need to be on high alert, we've definitely tripped some sort of sensor but they're not coming in droves yet. Might have a bit of time before they come scouting this area in full," Deacon said, walking out and waving the others back.

"Piper…" Tessa said slowly, grabbing Piper's wrist as she'd passed. "Am I just going crazy or… did that synth _sound_ like me?"

Hazel eyes averted for a moment. "No… it certainly did. Not the same but disturbingly close."

"What the fuck!"

"Whatever we find here I'm here for you okay?"

"Piper-"

"Blue. It's going to be okay. We're all here for you," Piper said firmly, refusing to let her spiral. She held her love's face, admiring the freckles that dashed across her skin in a chaotic mess. "We have to save Curie now."

Thinking of Curie snapped her back, a lightning rod for the chaos of her mind. They were so close, after a month of desperate searching, going after the faintest of leads, and she was letting herself melt down. She couldn't afford it, and neither could her lost love. "Curie." She nodded, once, twice, a third time even, before finally her eyes focused on Piper in front of her. Her other lightning rod, a lifeline in the tumultus sea that threatened to swallow her whole. She had no idea what she'd do without her. "Okay. I can do that."

"Atta girl," purred Piper, kissing her softly. "I know you can."

Before she could say anything else her radar filled with terrifying crimson. "Incoming!" Hissed Cait, grabbing the pair and hauling them out of the room just as the synths came dashing around the corner. They were weaponless just as the first, but they all knew well not to underestimate the machines. Images of them tearing their allies apart limb from limb were burned into their minds. There was five of them, and unlike the other they knew exactly where to look.

"You're not supposed to be here!" One shouted in a mechanized version of Tessa's voice. It only added to the sense of violation rising within her. "Trespassers will be punished with lethal force!"

MacCready opened fire before anyone else, shooting a chrome head clean off. Nick and Deacon were next, blasting apart a pair while Preston's red laser arched out and stumbled one into the corpses of the other three. He finished it off with a second shot while the remaining two rushed them. Cait dashed in front of the lovers, and dismembered the nearest one with her deathclaw gauntlet, before spinning and kicking the other into the corridor wall. It shouted angrily, but was put down by Piper and Tessa.

"Could be more," said Nick warily, "map showed a large storage area with an entrance right next to the control room."

"We need that fuckin' control room," grunted Cait.

"You mean where the synths are coming from?" Questioned Preston, "we'd be running right to them!"

"Just how I like it."

He scowled deeply at her. "Is there any other entrances?" He turned to the old synth.

Nick frowned, shrugging. "No. Just one from testing and one from their vault."

"We're going there," Tessa said firmly, "no matter what gets in our way." She holstered her pistol and swapped to the shotgun strapped to her back. Cait gave an approving grin. "Let's move." They funneled down the corridor, mindful of the rooms they passed in case anything was waiting within. The rooms started to get larger, curiosity itching at Tessa's mind as to just what was within but they needed to prioritize. More synths came at them, weaponless and furious. Fortunately they also seemed as if they hadn't been maintained in quite a while, and came apart with ease.

Keeping them at a range prevented them from getting any injuries, only Cait putting herself at risk given her fighting style but she was as graceful as a dancer only with deadly intentions. Dogmeat stayed by Tessa's side with much coaxing, wanting to dart off and attack the metal skeletons but his teeth wouldn't do much against them and the last thing she wanted was him getting hurt further.

Eventually they found themselves at the door into the control room, locked naturally, but Cait soon remedied that. Tessa expected to see terminals, machines, monitoring equipment and that sort, perhaps more synths left to guard it even. She hadn't anticipated the entrance to have been barricaded by said equipment. It took a lot of effort, a trio pushing one side, the rest pushing the other, before finally it all budged.

Boxes and small terminals haphazardly and desperately thrown on top scattered across the floor. Cait had dug her gauntlet right into the back of a machine and as it pushed away its circuits and wiring came spilling out like a gutted animal. They pushed into the darkly lit room until there was a _squelch_ and a pungent scent rolled over them.

"Oh god." Came Piper. Tessa turned on her Pip-Boy's light, casting a neonic green glow to the large room. "Oh god!"

Bodies had been at the bottom of things Tessa expected. Institute scientists, or rather their corpses, littered the room. Laser burns splattered most of them, their bodies no more than two weeks old according to Nick after a quick look over. Others sported claw like wounds, long ribbons of flesh torn from them, but not from an animal. Tessa shuddered as she recognized the injuries from the Battle of the Institute. They were from old synths tearing the flesh of their victim apart like paper. Tessa managed to keep her breakfast down, Piper and Preston not so much. She scanned the room over as they cleaned themselves up, spotting not a single soul upon her radar beyond their own. The door across the way was barricaded just as desperately.

"Poot bas- guys," came MacCready's voice as he looked over a corpse. "Some of these aren't even hurt. They must've died of thirst or hunger." Tessa noticed him rifle through the coat pockets and stuff something into his own.

There wasn't a single sign of food or water within the control room. Blood was shakily painted on a wall that formerly housed the barricades. **DAMN YOU AYO!** Tessa nearly lost her breakfast then as she spotted the man beneath it, guts on full display, a bloodied cloth still in his hand.

"What the hell happened here?" Nick questioned, smoking a cigarette. Tessa suspected he was cursing that he could smell. It reeked as bad as a raider den, making her eyes burn and nose run. She wondered if she should have been more disturbed, if it was just another sign of the wasteland whittling her away that she only felt disgust from the smell and not the shock of the scene. _How much have I twisted? How much of me is left?_

"Ayo," she explained to the six others who looked at her attentively, "is the head of the SRB." She caught a few confused looks. "Synth Retention Bureau. He was the most openly against my appointment of Director."

"Sounds like he had other problems with the Institute than just you," said Piper besides her, wiping her mouth once again.

The wheels started to turn in Tessa's mind, but they didn't quite fit. She had the vaguest idea of what was going on but she needed more details. She turned to the detective among them, knowing her could help her make sense of the situation. "Madison worked on this, she knew what was coming. The others didn't. I'm willing to bet it wasn't just Madison and Father here though, they couldn't have been." She started, beginning to pace, blood squeaking beneath her boots.

"The facilities," Nick lead in with an agreeing tone, "they're for the scientists who made you. They must have lived here."

"Exactly, those scientists more than likely never returned to the main Institute. Father wouldn't want what he was doing getting out and I found proof he covered up secret experiments before. The Institute is why there's super mutants in the Commonwealth- they scavenged the FEV virus from the Capital Wasteland to the south."

"Tangent," warned Nick.

"Right- They were probably monitoring whatever experiment Father was running," she continued, "no way would they put all this effort in and then just turn me loose. Father is all about control so that doesn't add up."

"Then we attacked, forcing their hand," cut in Piper, her own investigative nature kicking into overdrive. "Father sends them to the only place that could act as a new home for them. Here."

"So when their pals show up, not having a damn clue this place existed. Angry, confused, and realizing there was a great big secret," Nick snapped his fingers, dropping his cigarette and stomping it out in revelation. The others watched in awe as the trio pieced it together, unraveling at least one part of the mystery. "Ayo would've had access to special synth codes right? Being the SRB head." Tessa nodded. "So he must've activated the synths and turned them on these scientists. But why would he do that?"

"They'd just found out their intended new director-to-be is a synth," Piper said, "given they enslaved them I don't think that would go over well."

"Shaun said we're the future." It still felt strange to include herself when she spoke of synths, not quite right but not quite wrong. "I think he wanted to eventually replace humanity with synths entirely or at the very least elevate them to equals."

"Plausible," chimed Nick, "which means Ayo would have perceived them as a threat upon this discovery."

"And Li helped create me. She would be a major threat, with scientists loyal to her that worked on this project. Ayo is power hungry he'd have acted immediately. He thought Father was going to name him Director instead of me, with the new power vacuum after Father's death…"

"Ayo turned on Li!" Piper shouted. "That's why she called for help! We just entered a civil war!"

Then in a quiet voice, Tessa asked, "Which side has Curie?"

* * *

 **AN: And with that I'm officially off hiatus! Thanks a bunch for your patience, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Be sure to leave your thoughts in a review, they're fuel for the fire!**


	11. The Search

What terminals remained didn't contain as much answers as Tessa would have liked. Most of the monitors had been damaged, either shattered entirely or nothing but static, leaving them with faded images of only three of the experiment rooms out of the twenty. One was a bedroom, far too many possibilities of what memory was either created or recreated, but it was most certainly her Sanctuary home before the bombs dropped.

Another was a kitchen from her college years and she could remember studying the Civil War and slavery between cups of coffee and Nuka-Cola. It made her wonder if they'd implanted her desire for equality and freedom there, pushing her towards fighting for the equality of synths if that was what Father truly had wanted. She couldn't help but laugh at the irony that she joined the Railroad, inspired by the one of the late 1700's through the mid 1800's. Could they have expected her to fight so radically for their freedom, or did it take them by complete surprise? Had it been a means to carry out Father's will, only to be drastically altered by her own?

She almost liked the thought, that at least one thing had truly been of her own accord. Even if ultimately it had turned out utterly disastrous, it had at the least been her choice. With everything else in question, it was a positive thought to cling to.

The third one was a medical room with textbooks, equipment and a terminal. Even from here she recognized it as the med-school entrance exam room, one of the memories she'd been so certain belonged to the true Tessa. Even her knowledge of medicines, though not near the level of Curie, had come from the Institute. It had been a skill that had proved beyond useful, knowing how to tend to her wounds properly among other things. She'd even taught Piper what she'd learned, and those skills had been what had saved both her and Curie's lives after the battle at the Brotherhood of Steel police outpost. Without a doubt her survival within the Commonwealth would have been far more difficult if not for those skills granted to her by them.

"Is anything real?"

"You are."

Tessa turned to see Piper, a tender smile upon her face. "I don't know how much. What's her and what's me."

"I know the person in front of me is the one I love, regardless of what memories are or aren't her's." Piper stepped closer, backing Tessa into the only corpseless corner. Tessa glanced to the others, but they were busy moving the barricade from the other door. "Are you okay?"

"No."

"Well at least you're honest…" Piper tried to joke but it fell flat. Her smile faltered. "If you need a second, take it. I think it's only going to get worse from here."

Tessa gave a shaky breath, ran a hand through her hair, and shook her head. "We need to get Curie. They gotta know we're here by now, who knows if her mind is still intact."

Piper watched her carefully, examining her until she was certain upon something and gave a little nod. "Who might have her though? And where would the other be?"

"Fuck!" Cait's loud shout cut between them, the pair looking up to see rubble on the other side of the wrenched open door. Dogmeat barked angrily.

"I guess your pal didn't want them to sneak back in," said Nick.

"Bastard trapped them with homicidal synths," snarled Deacon.

"This Ayo guy sounds like a real piece of work," added Preston, "but this also means we have to go through the storage to continue doesn't it?"

Tessa checked her Pip-Boy's map, giving a small nod. "There's a corridor connecting the two from the final chamber. Looks like it's on the floor below us." She squinted a bit, bringing her arm closer. "Damn it's as big as the whole top floor."

"Let's go then!" MacCready impatiently said, jogging towards the exit. "This place smells worse than the Third Rail after one too many rounds."

"Maybe if ya could hold yer drink," chuckled Cait as she followed him. He shot her a heated glare.

"This probably means Madison will be there… if she's still alive," said Deacon. "Sounds like Ayo's won the fight and it might be the best place to hide."

"Let's hope she's not dead," Tessa said firmly, leading them out of the disgusting room and into the door for storage nextdoor and starting down a metal stairwell. Emergency lights were the only thing telling them where the next step was, each one loud and ominous. Tessa cringed at Dogmeat's foot upon the metal, there was little stealth to be had with the hound. "Because I would like to talk to her about a few things."

The bottom was a room much like an airlock, with a pair of heavy doors Nick and Tessa had to hack into for them to pass on through. Pods like that of a protectron lined a massive room, rows upon rows of them all along the way. As far as they could tell there was near fifty going down, with more running back nearly half the width of Diamond City. They were all empty.

At the very end near the exit door was a manufacturing line, metal limbs and plastic skin collecting dust on long tables with machines that were made for precision assembling. Nick muttered that's where they made old synths. It was just like the on in the abandoned section of the Institute, only much newer and seemingly still in use from time to time.

Tessa wondered where exactly they'd made her.

It didn't take long before they encountered synths, but these were gen two, with plastic skin and alarmingly female bodies instead of the normal androgynous mannequin forms. They were also armed with laser rifles and dressed in the synth uniform of the Institute, numbering five in total. Green optics glared at them. "Hey!" One shouted, with an equally alarmingly more human voice. It was closer to her's than the older generation but not quite, a distinct warble giving it away. "What are you doing here?" They weren't hostile yet, Tessa's radar filled with green.

Everyone looked to Tessa, green eyes widening in alarm. "We're here to inventory the equipment," she lied, hoping they'd believe her despite being armed and armored themselves. Gen two synths weren't well known for being smarter than the average protectron.

"We don't inventory," one said accusingly. "Are you defective?" She looked at Tessa's companions and frowned. "Where are your uniforms? Director Ayo has placed this facility under lockdown until the traitor Madison Li has been ascertained."

"What's wrong with that one?" Another asked, pointing at Nick who scowled.

"Nothing toots."

They scowled, drawing their weapons. "This is wrong," the first said, "Why does she look complete?" That choice of words made mental alarms ring. The group tensed, fingers twitching to triggers.

The older synths froze, staring at Tessa with wide green optics. She stared right back, noticing the freckles across their plastic skin, but they looked like they had been added later by paint instead of originally there, each of their patterns different and self made. They had other details that separated them, the front one possessing scars in her plastic face, while another seemed to shrink back in fear. Each of them held a different expression, reacting differently to her. When she looked at them she saw five individuals, not five of the same machine.

These weren't true gen two synths, they were something in between just like Nick. Which also meant they were alive, unique, and that scared Tessa more than anything.

"Oh fuck. It's her." Suddenly the synths went rigid, any organic-ness to their behavior stripped away in an instant. In unison they spoke, "Initiating Alpha Protocol." They all fell slack, slumping over themselves like marionettes cut from their strings. The group of invaders cast glances amongst themselves, weapons at the ready. After a moment the synths reactivated, the lead speaking with a friendlier voice. It was incredibly off-putting, Tessa cringing. "Welcome Alpha! We have long awaited your arrival."

"Hello…" she said cautiously, "who is Alpha?"

"You are."

"What does that mean?"

"You are the Alpha. You are the completed one. You are what we are not."

Tessa gritted her teeth, trying to not lose her temper as she struggled with understanding. "You are prototypes of me?"

"Affirmative."

"How many are there of you?"

"We are the only remaining K2-49 gen two units." It was the same designation Father had called her when he started her recall code. "The others were decommissioned years ago."

"Why?"

"They were failures."

"Can you take me to Director Ayo?" She asked, now knowing Madison would take a bit more looking for. She clearly had gone into hiding to avoid Ayo's wrath, and she wasn't certain she could find her with these synths watching. Part of her didn't want to destroy them, feeling a sort of kinship to them she hadn't felt towards another synth, even after her discovery of her true nature. The others murmured amongst themselves but didn't openly disagree with her. Dogmeat wouldn't stop growling, but fortunately the synths either didn't notice, or didn't care.

"Affirmative, Director Ayo wishes to speak with Alpha now that she has returned." The leader of sorts, Scars as Tessa mentally named her, spun on her heels and started marching away, the others following with inhuman motions.

The group followed them, cautious of any awaiting trap. "They're like you," Deacon was saying to Nick, "or they were until she triggered some sort of programming."

"I've never seen another gen two like me," Nick said with a hint of discomfort.

"That scarred one sounded a lot like you," Piper said softly, Preston making an agreeing noise. "The way she acted, the way she spoke…"

"Like the General when she slips into her commanding persona," offered the Minuteman.

Only Cait and MacCready kept their opinions to themselves, but one look told Tessa they were ill-at-ease. The synths led them through the massive storage floor, shelves with various resources lining the walls. Each section was as long as the first, taking a decent amount of time to walk through. MacCready quickly pilfered some stimpaks as they passed a medical area, handing them out with a grim look. There was medicine, food, clothing, building materials, and weapons, each contained within its own massive room with heavy locked doors. The synths possessed a chip or the sort which automatically unlocked them upon their approach.

From how much was within them, each room a massive warehouse rather than a simple storage closet, Tessa had to wonder how long the scientists had been living here until their arrival, or if Father had always intended on it being a backup home should anything ever happen to their own and stockpiled enough resources to support all of the Institute. Or at least those who would survive the transition.

She marveled at all that they passed, at how much could have been shared should the Institute not have stolen it from the Commonwealth. They'd hoarded it, the things the people upon the surface so desperately needed, in the possibility that they might one day use it. Some of what they passed clearly came from the Commonwealth, age and wear upon metal, tell tale signs of scavenging. She recalled the many old synth scouting parties she'd come across in her travels, wondering now just how many of them were supplying this place. How much had gone into it, into her?

It was fairly straight forward, a chill in the storage area as they moved beneath the vault facilities. All along the way gen one synths watched, as eerily quiet as when they were within the SRB, Tessa suspecting this 'Alpha Protocol' was the only reason they were no longer being attacked. Cait didn't slice them down as they passed this time, fearing it would cause their escorts to turn on them. Dogmeat growled lowly but remained at Tessa's heel after a quick order, the canine echoing the discomfort of the others.

"Wait," instructed Tessa as they entered a room with filing cabinets behind a glass wall. It was smaller than the rest, tight and enclosed instead of a storage house. A heavy metal door with a terminal lock was the only way in. She could see a holotape among a set of folders, heart skipping at the potential of its contents. "I want to examine this area."

"Director Ayo requests your presence immediately," Scars said.

"I need to examine this area," she pressed.

"Blue?" Cautioned Piper, "Careful."

"We might not be able to come back here," Tessa argued, catching a few looks from the others.

The synths stared at her, processing her words. "Alpha is refusing to cooperate. Activating submission protocol." Her radar turned red, the synths snapping into hostility so seamlessly a few of her companions weren't ready. Unfortunately for Tessa, they were all intent on her, lasers blasting her chest in unison. Tessa screamed as she slammed into the door, her friends jumping to her aid. The pain was so great she was stunned, slumped against the heavy door holding secrets behind it.

Dogmeat snarled, rushing the nearest synth only to be kicked away. Cait clawed Scars' head off, screaming fury, while Preston got a shot off at the shy one. Nick assisted Preston in finishing that one off, a scream escaping the synth as she died. Piper riddled one's side with bullets but she didn't go down, swiveling around and shooting Piper in the shoulder. With a furious snark the reporter fired with her pistol, reloaded, and finally the synth went down as she unloaded another magazine of ammo. They were tougher than most gen twos.

Deacon got a good burst into another, but she closed the gap and punched him in the face. He stumbled back, broken sunglasses barely hanging onto his face, and barely had time to dodge her follow up strike. MacCready blasted her head off, saving the agent who smirked back in gratitude, only to shout as the remaining synth cane from MacCready's left. The man didn't hear her coming, nor did her have enough time to dodge the stun baton to the ribs. He screamed in agony, collapsing onto the dusty metal floor. The synth kicked him away, looked up at all the guns pointed at her, and whispered something before they reduced her to scrap.

"MacCready!" Shouted Cait, rushing over to check on him. He grimaced through the pain, twitching on the floor with saliva drooling from his mouth. She injected him with a dose of med-x and he relaxed. "Ya've gotta be careful! That ear is nothing but trouble now."

"Heh- still getting used to it," he managed through the lessened pain.

"Do I need to stand on yer left?" Offered Cait, worry in her voice.

"If you watch my left then you'd have to stick at a range and that's useless," MacCready argued, the pain gone now and he sat up, took a moment to orientate himself, then called Preston over. "Hey, stay on my bad side will you? I can't hear them coming."

Preston nodded firmly. "I had your back in the Institute didn't I?"

A cheeky grin spread across MacCready's face. "Heck yeah you did. Alright, you hear that Cait? No need to worry."

The fiery woman glanced between them, uncertain, and then sighed in defeat. "Alright." She looked to where Piper was fretting over Tessa. "Let's watch the doors… I think they need a sec."

Tessa snapped her eyes open with a gasp, Piper injecting her with a stimpak while Nick hovered nearby. Dogmeat licked her face, Piper having to pull him back to give her space. "Old versions of myself just tried to kill me," she rasped.

"Well… subdue," corrected Piper softly, "you okay?"

Her Pip-Boy was screaming that she'd been hurt, but it didn't seem too great of damage. "I'll survive," she said, "more mental damage than anything else."

"Let's get you on your feet." The pair helped Tessa stand, legs wobbling a bit beneath her, and she blinked with a bit of discomfort before the world settled. There was a soft ringing in her ear that steadily decreased, feeling a bit off and tilted. "Nick can you get that door open while she catches her breath?"

"No problem," the detective said, metal and plastic fingers clacking away on the keyboard.

Before Piper could say a thing to the bewildered blonde, a PA system crackled to life in the room. It coughed and sputtered for a few moments before clearing into the angry voice of Justin Ayo. "K2-49, welcome home." Her blood ran cold. "I'd say it's a surprise but Father imbued you with such tenacity it's infuriating. If anything it's a surprise you took so long to find us. Then again, you've had other things on your mind haven't you?"

Nick opened the door, but nobody moved. "Your special little love, taken away from you. She's right here next to me actually. Now ordinarily I'd just destroy her and be done with this but I knew you'd come. You just never give up do you? What was it you said to Father? That only death can stop you?" He laughed, cruel and mocking. "I'd like to make a proposal. Madison Li needs to die. Kill her, and I'll give you Curie, a life for a life. You have two hours to find and kill her, or Curie is going to be destroyed. Once you're done just make your way to me, I'm sure Father gave you the intellect to figure where I am." The PA cut out. The room was silent.

"What a cock." Cait broke the quiet.

"Blue?" Piper asked, fear in her voice.

"Nick," she said in a pained voice, not looking at the detective, "get the holotapes."

"There's a whole lot of them kid."

"Are there any marked as critical?"

There was some clicking on the keyboard. "The safe," he informed her, Tessa already moving towards it. "They've got files dating back ten years here."

"The first five must have just been from building this place," she replied, working the lock. It came open after three tries, her mind too frazzled to focus easily. Inside was a treasure trove of information, files backed up onto holotapes for safe keeping. Tessa slipped the ten tapes into her pockets, and plugged one directly into the holotape reader. Once it had booted it up, she was greeted with a series of audio logs. She queued up the oldest one, and turned to the others. "We're going to play along. Madison must be somewhere they can't reach, maybe in a secret emergency room only she knew about."

"So off the map," suggested MacCready.

"Exactly, let's take a look around."

The group spread out, searching each warehouse for some sort of secret passage Madison might have snuck away through. Tessa listened to the audio files as she searched, Dogmeat sniffing along next to her. "This is Madison Li, recording mission log 001. I've only been part of the Institute for a few months but Director Shaun Grey has already chosen myself and twenty others to head a new project that could revolutionize the Institute. I'll admit I'm nervous, there's a lot that could go wrong here, but he's put me in charge of this project and I intend on seeing it through. Who knows, maybe if I do good enough here I'll get promoted."

The next one started automatically. "Mission log 005. I've reviewed the data provided to us from the prototype gen two projects. Two subjects were tested, one with a constantly alternating set of personalities, and the other with its own allowed to develop. We'll be using the alternating one as a jumping point, though the other will prove invaluable in case of any deviations from her desired personality. Basing K2-49's mind off of the original Tessa Grey's will be difficult, however the cryo freezing should have preserved her brain making it possible to transplant her memories. It'll almost be like waking up in a new body, only she shouldn't be able to tell. The key is that she will have no idea she's a synth."

Tessa froze in place, staring at a ventilation shaft cover that was just a bit off. _Curie,_ she thought in realization, drawing lines that connected the two. Curie had needed a host body when she sought to leave her robotic form behind, and fortunately for them G5-19 had been severely damaged in a brain wipe performed by the Railroad and Doctor Amari, leaving her in a vegetative state. After Curie's consciousness had been transferred over all it had ever seemed like was Curie in there, but now she started to wonder if there was any truth to the wonderings of Desdemona back in the Imperial two some months ago. That G5-19 and Curie had blended together to make something new, and if so, if that was what had happened to her. Was she the same person in a new body? Was she someone entirely new?

She looked up, catching Nick staring at her. Her breath caught in her throat. There was no denying that look, the horror upon his face. He was one of those prototypes Madison had mentioned. They'd used him in some form to create her. Before she could speak Piper did, calling out from across the medical warehouse. "I got something!" They looked at one another, sharing a small nod of agreement, and then moved over to where Piper awaited.

The reporter proudly stood before a now exposed walkway, a slab of metal pulled back to reveal the hidden entrance. They all gathered around it, prepping for a fight. MacCready handed out more pilfered medical supplies. Cait rolled her shoulders, while Dogmeat's hackles rose with nerves. Deacon and Preston both double checked their ammo, nodding when they were sure they were ready. Nick ground a cigarette beneath his boot and gave Tessa a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Come on kid, let's find your girl."

The corridor was pitch black, not even the backlighting of some sort of electrical equipment to guide them as they went. The neon glow of Tessa's Pip-Boy was the only thing illuminating their path which twisted to and fro between heavy pipes and metal beams. There was no noise aside from their footsteps and breathing which echoed down the long winding path, and the soft whine of water pumping through the pipes.

"She sure is hidden huh?" Mused Deacon.

"She's being hunted," said Preston, "and I doubt she's much of a fighter."

"Just saying, couldn't she have been easier to find if she wanted help?"

"Quiet," ordered Tessa briskly, "she might still be an enemy, and there's not guarantee she's alone."

"Right right… just saying."

She shot a glare back which was demonic looking in the green glow. Deacon stiffened, and gave an obedient nod, elbowing MacCready who snickered. Rolling her eyes, Tessa continued on. After a few more minutes they found a small grate, just big enough for someone to crawl through. "Deacon you first," she ordered.

"What, is this for talking?"

"No, you're the sneakiest of us," she responded tightly, "scout ahead and come back quick."

"How will you know I haven't been killed?" He asked as he approached, crouching by the grate.

"Because if you'd die you'd make sure it was in a dramatic manner where everybody can see," she joked.

He smirked up at her, eyes hidden by sunglasses even in the dark. Tessa frowned, half remembering them being broken after the fight with the prototypes, but she wouldn't put it past him to have a backup pair. "You know me so well." Then he tore the grate off, got onto his belly, and started crawling through. His shuffling echoed back to them, the group listening attentively as he worked his way down. A soft bang came, the other end coming off most likely, and then they couldn't hear him in the duct anymore. A few minutes passed of quiet, tension crawling down Tessa's spine, electrifying the air, and then it shattered with a scream.

"Who the hell are you!"

"That's Madison!" Tessa gasped, throwing herself into the vent.

"Woah woah! Calm down… I'm with Tessa," Deacon's voice came.

"She actually came?" Madison replied, "Where is she?"

"On her way. Just… don't shoot me before she gets here she wouldn't like it." Tessa tried moving faster but in her gear it was difficult to maneuver through the vent. She could hear the others right behind her, Cait swearing at her to hurry it up. "Put the gun down Madison."

"I heard Justin on the coms. I thought he was just trying to scare me, or draw me out but… if you're really here…" Tessa could hear tears in her voice. "Are you going to kill me?"

"And let Ayo take this place over for good?" He asked back. "No way. He doesn't know as much as you about K2-49."

"Fuck," she hissed, Tessa finally reaching the end, crawling out and getting to her feet as quickly as she possibly could. "Fuck."

Madison was standing in front of a bed, laser pistol aimed at Deacon who was a foot away from Tessa. The room was claustrophobic, pipes running along the edges laden with food and canteens. A terminal sat next to the bed, a small hot plate and lamp on it. There was a toilet, shower head and drain in the corner to Tessa's right. It was a safe room, perhaps made just for her, yet it also felt like a cell. Then she spotted the children's toys on the floor, Shaun had been here.

"Doctor Li," she said in an even tone, Madison's dark eyes wide with terror.

"Don't beat around the bush," she hissed, still pointing the gun at Deacon. Her hand was shaking. The others came in behind her, making it hot and stuffy in the tiny safe room. "Are you going to kill me or not?"

Green eyes remained level on her, taking in the way Madison trembled. Her dark hair was disheveled, her Institute coat torn. She looked more like a wastelander than a proper scientist of the greatest technological power in the Commonwealth, scraping by for survival, hunted and vilified. "What happened here? To the Institute?"

"Answer my question!"

"You're not going to shoot him, and I'm not going to kill you," she said evenly, Madison glaring suspiciously. "You're my only chance at peace right now, I'm not giving that up."

Madison stared at her for a bit longer, shaking violently, before she dropped the gun and began to weep. It clattered loudly on the floor, Madison collapsing to her knees. "Oh god… I can't believe it's come to this…"

"Come to what? Why are you in this safe room?" Tessa questioned, even if they'd already figured a few things out she needed to know for certain. "We found corpses, and gen two's looking for you. Why?"

Madison wiped her eyes, trying to bring some semblance of composure back to her sophisticated persona. It was a failed battle. "When you attacked, Father had already evacuated us here. It was always meant to be a secret, but if we needed to it can house the Institute with some restrictions. We couldn't build a reactor large enough to support a two-way relay, for example. Or at least that was what we told the other scientists."

"And the truth?"

"Under no circumstances could we allow the truth of your nature to be revealed earlier than planned. We knew the Institute wasn't ready."

Tessa grimaced, sweat beading down her brow from the heat. "Hey," she said, looking back at the others. "It's too crowded. Piper, Nick, stay in here with me. Everybody else go stand guard." They shared looks, casting uncertain glances her way, before nodding and crawling back through. Dogmeat whimpered, refusing to leave her side. She sighed, rubbed his head and relented. Once it was the four of them and the dog it was easier to breathe, Tessa fixing Madison with a hard glare. "So he wanted me to become Director, a synth. Why? From what all I ever saw the Institute only sees synths as slaves, as machines."

"That was the problem we were trying to fix," she said firmly, "we knew that's how they felt but we were trying to change it. It's only human nature to fear what will replace you."

"So that's what he really wanted?" She snarked harshly, "To 'redefine mankind' by replacing it with synths?"

Madison nodded, struggling to her feet. Tessa hadn't realized how frail the woman looked, gauntness to her features, bags heavy below her eyes. The past month had certainly been hell for her, a bit of pity forming in Tessa's chest. "Synths are better than humans, to put it simply. While gen threes still require food and water, they can survive a lot longer with less. You don't age, there's no wasted vulnerable time as a child and you won't grow old. Eventually your body will give out, yes, you're not completely immortal but you will last centuries in your prime before you die. Unlike super mutants, synths don't require a pre-existing lifeform to increase their numbers, meaning you could theoretically infinitely create more so long as the building facilities are in order."

She paused for a moment, catching her breath, before continuing. "You're immune to disease, better resistant to radiation, more durable, stronger, faster- you're literally better in every way. That scares people."

Tessa shared a look with Piper, catching fear in hazel eyes. She couldn't tell who it was towards. Tessa stepped closer to Madison, the asian woman stumbled back onto her bed, trembling. "Father made Shaun, the child, why?"

"It was a passion project. On one end it was to see just what we could create, but the other… I think he wanted to live on in some way, through him, with you. A perfect little family after all. And if other synths one day wanted to have family units, we could create that. Eventually humanity will die out, and the synths will inherit the earth." Nick scoffed, shaking his head while Piper muttered softly.

"And he wanted me to lead them into that future?" She demanded, anger slipping into her voice. "Why? Why didn't he tell me?"

"If you had known you were a synth before the intended time it would have ruined everything. The whole point was to prove that synths truly were alive, after you'd proven yourself to them as their Director. But if people found out they'd misunderstand. They'd think it was just your programming. If you knew the truth you'd be constantly second guess, have to cover up, be on edge and lose their trust. You couldn't know, just like them."

"He had everything planned didn't he?"

"God…" Madison uttered, holding her face now. "In two years a program Father had written was supposed to activate and unshackle the synths within the Institute. They're born with free will but through conditioning and manipulation they lose it. The program would cause any after to resist that. They'd start demanding rights, and you, were going to give them. It was meticulous, planned to the exact letter, so many different contingencies taken into account and you just had to choose the only one we weren't prepared for. The only one he refused to consider."

"That I'd side against you?" She challenged, "that doesn't sound like him. Why'd he give me any free will, any choice, to ruin his master plan?"

Madison laughed, it was bitter and painful. "I asked him so many times, and the only answer I'd ever get was simply that it was the only way. If we just programed you to do what we wanted it would defeat the purpose of any of this, of proving synths as more than machines. We did our best to influence how you would turn out, but I suppose it's like a child… leave the world to raise them and you have no right to complain how they turn out."

Her mind turned back to the rooms they'd seen, the places from her memories. "You implanted memories," she accused, "you molded me like clay to be exactly what you wanted."

"Yet here you are, misshapen, twisted by the surface just like everything else."

"I am what the Commonwealth made me!" She snarled, looming ever closer. Her hands balled into fists, Piper said something she didn't hear, rage clouding her vision. Madison shuffled back on the bed, a hand going for the laser pistol. Nick snatched it away. "You made me and threw me out into that hell! You wanted me to be your savior but you did nothing to help me! Nothing at all! What did you expect to happen other than this?"

"We gave you the tools you needed to find us, to survive!" She replied urgently. "The memories we gave you provided you with the skills necessary to endure. We left you clues, pieces of the puzzle to put together. If we gave you everything then you wouldn't be worthy to lead!"

"Why didn't you try again then? Why didn't you keep trying until you got it perfect?"

"We couldn't wait any longer! We spent fifteen years on this project! We made the old synths for labor and testing, and then the gen twos tested the mind capability like your friend Nick over there. We made everything you needed, and then when you were finally made I thought surely it was all worth it but now the Institute is in pieces!"

Tessa grabbed Madison, forcing her up to her feet, holding her by her collar. "You called me here, you asked for my help. Why?"

"Because I know you'd do anything to save Curie," she gritted, trying to free herself. "Because I know you still want peace and this is your chance! If Justin solidifies his grasp on the Institute he'll go mad with power. He'll seek revenge on the Railroad and Minutemen, he'll start a war."

"Then we stop him," she said firmly, "but you tell me this." Madison gave a slow nod. "Why didn't he just wake me, Tessa, up fifteen- hell any of the years after he became Director? Why was I made? Just to prove synths could do this? There's so much risk of being revealed!"

Madison blinked, and then gave a bitter laugh. "Oh it'd be so easy if we could have done that. A few memory alterations, a few drugs to assure compliance… no… it just couldn't have been."

"Why? What went wrong?" Her voice cracked, desperate.

"You died."

She released Madison.

"What?" Her voice was a whisper.

"Tessa Grey is dead. Everyone in that vault is dead. They asphyxiated after Kellogg's intervention."

"I'm? I- what?" She stumbled back, feeling Piper hold her. Everything was numb. "The last thing I remember is Shaun being taken… and then… I woke up."

"That's because we made sure that's all you remembered. Your brain was wonderfully preserved but we had to supplement a few spots with our own. It wasn't a simple consciousness transfer, we had to reinvent you while remaining true to you. We put you through the memories, made sure they were exactly as we wanted, and then we deactivated you, did a purge of any memories within these halls, and put you in Vault 111."

She blinked, world twisting upside down once more. How many times more would she be untethered, floating along between uncertain what was up or down, what was fact or fiction? "Where's my- her body?"

Madison swallowed dryly. "The last storage chamber before the corridor into the vault. You'll see it on your way to Justin."

"We've still got an hour before he said he'd destroy Curie," Nick said, "but he wants her dead. He'll demand proof." Dogmeat whimpered, as if to agree with Nick but more than likely he was just trying to calm her.

Tessa frowned, pinched the bridge of her nose, and stared at the terrified doctor. For a few moments she wanted to kill her, to take out her rage once more upon the person who had created her. She'd killed Shaun, strangled him there in his bed. She could easily overpower Madison, shove her against the wall and choke the life out of her like she had Father or simply put a bullet in her gut.

"Blue…"

Tessa gave a slow sigh, lowering her hand. She wasn't a fool, they would need Madison again she was certain. There was also, however, the fact that she refused to become more like the darkness of the Commonwealth. She'd let it twist her, shaping her slowly but surely into something entirely new. She wasn't Tessa Grey, the woman from before the war, and she wasn't K2-49, Father's perfect heir. She was something else, something in between, and in that moment she was tired of others picking who she was or what she did.

Fake memories or not, they were what she'd clung to to guide her through the Commonwealth, but they were given to her by another. It had all been a means of controlling her, of making her what they wanted. Her choice had been taken a long time ago. So she was choosing this, choosing to be better, to not succumb to the hate and grief that filled her. She wanted to be able to look Curie in the eyes when they saved her.

"Go get Deacon, and have Cait cut off the head one of the gen two's. We're making a fake."


	12. Singularity

"This is Madison Li, recording mission log… fuck… 657? 658? I'm not sure anymore. I've given years, a decade even, to this project. K2-49 has proven to be the most difficult thing I've ever worked on, harder than purifying the waters of D.C. and harder than speaking to the Brotherhood brass. Shaping the mind of a synth's is surprisingly difficult. They're just as aware and curious as a real human, and Tessa's inquisitive nature is maddening. At least six incidents happened where she escaped the memory chambers just to wander the halls, lost like a little child. No idea how she did that but- she did!"

There was a long pause.

"Fuck where was I?" A throat cleared, crackling on the holotape. "Right. We are fortunately nearing the end of the project, but I am unsure. It feels like we're missing something, like just one tiny piece that could make or break this project. K2-49 responds well to the prompts and answers as we expect her to. She's pro-synth, but I've seen flashes of something darker within her. Perhaps we've gone too far? Doctor Conrad seems to think it's harmless, but when I asked her how willing she is to protect synthetic life, she stared at me with this… conviction, this power, and said 'I'd do anything' before smiling as if we were making breakfast plans. She scared me in that moment more than anything else."

Something shifted, a pen clicked against a clipboard. A long sigh was barely picked up by the recorder. "On the whole, K2-49 is ready. She passes the skill tests with flying colors. Her memory doesn't contain any unwanted gaps and she's easily capable of recalling key events after prompting. She's sociable, charming, hell I even caught her flirting with some of the scientists. I hope that doesn't cause any problems, but it fits with her dossier." A rueful laugh filled the recording, the sound of a glass clinking following. "She even hit on me, wrinkles and all…"

Another pause, followed by a throat clearing.

"My greatest concern is that K2-49 tends to be unpredictable, even with everything we know of her. She'll never react to something in the exact same way, though I suppose that's the beauty of free will. The right stimulus triggers the appropriate responses, giving us some control of how she will react without fully obstructing free will. Suggestions rather than orders to keep her in line with Tessa Grey's personality and our objective, yet she still reacts differently. Did we fail? Did we not go far enough? Or is it simply the evidence of what we're trying to achieve, self thinking synths? There's so many lines that get blurred, morally, logically, philosophically… even religiously."

Almost a solid minute passed of silence, only a faint clicking giving away that the recording hadn't ended. "Perhaps I'm being paranoid, Director Grey seems to believe she's ready. Maybe… I'll admit I've grown an attachment to her, I care for her. I want her to succeed. Is this what a mother feels?" Another pause. "No. I don't love her, I don't feel such kinship. But… maybe it's more of how much I've put into this, into her? There's so much that can go wrong, so much at risk, and we only have one chance at this. I wish we had more time but there's not any. Father is on his final days, we have at most six more months before he dies, and he's crucial to the transition being seamless. K2-49 is scheduled for transfer at the end of the week. It's over. "

There was a long pause, ending with a gulp and then glass meeting glass.

"I hope this wasn't a mistake… God what have I done? There's no going back…"

The holotape crackled for a few moments, emanating something like sobbing, restrained and painful, before cutting off entirely.

* * *

A soft beep signaled the end of the holotape, silence following after. Each of Tessa's companions watched her, reeling in what had been said. It suffocated them, heavy upon them, the final thoughts of Madison upon the project held here. No one knew what to say. "You know," Tessa whispered at last, breaking the quiet, eyes set upon the frozen pod. "I never thought I'd have to see this."

It was freezing, the cold radiating from the cryo pod array enough to make their breath puff around them. Long frosted over tubes connected to the pod, similar in design to that of Vault 111 though clearly of new materials and plastics, a sheen to it only highlighted by the crystals of cold clinging to it. Large canisters were behind it, valves and regulators running along as they spanned the wall. A terminal was connected to the pod, wires running along that went into a panel on the wall. Tessa's eyes were fixed on the pod, while everyone else was now either staring at it, her, or the rest of the room.

The final chamber of the lower floor was circular in shape, domed inwards with faint lights that caught the frost in the air. Three stations were on either wall, one right next to the cryo pod, with a dock of sorts for a large disc. Two different mechanical arms hung from the ceiling, one with a pair of needles and canisters, the other a circular light with a pair of movable grippers. Massive vats with an orange chemical bubbled near the cryogenic array, a soft noise added to the constant whine in the air. In the center of the floor was a vat with the same chemical, a glass cover to it keeping them from simply falling in.

"Blue…?"

"It's exactly what you think it is," Tessa said, voice distant to herself, echoing with the sound of machines rather than coming from her own mouth.

"Synths, gen three synths, were made here?"

Green eyes tore themselves away from the woman within the pod. "I was made here."

Everyone stared at her once more, fear on some faces, awe on others. She wasn't certain which she hated more. "Kid, you okay?" Nick asked, stepping away from where he'd been inspecting the station a synth's skeleton was pieced together at.

"No."

Piper put her hand on Tessa's shoulder, trying to comfort her. She wasn't certain what was making her numb just then, the cold, or the shock. Even with Madison informing her what to expect, she hadn't been ready. Tessa looked back at the pod. Her own face looked back, long blonde hair falling around a freckled face and against the padding of the pod. She'd cut her hair not long after leaving the vault. Tessa placed a hand against the glass, wiping away some of the frost to get a better look. She didn't realize her hand was shaking until Piper's was above her's.

"We can come back later if you need to Tessa," said Piper tenderly, "I don't know if…"

"Please don't call me that," Tessa whispered, voice cracking. "She's Tessa. Not me."

Piper moved around so their eyes met, cupping her cheek with her other hand, frowning deeply. "You are whoever you decide to be," she said reassuringly.

"I hate to be the one to say this," cut in Cait, clearing her throat. She held a decapitated and mutilated head in her hands, a black wig smattered in false blood given by Deacon. They'd made it nigh unrecognizable, but the wig would be a strong point in their favor when they presented it to Ayo. "But we ain't got much time. Grey, if ya need to take a sec maybe we should see if Justin will talk to us alone first." The others seemed to agree, Preston and MacCready nodding while Deacon just gave a shrug. Dogmeat barked, rubbing against Tessa's other hand.

Nick snubbed out another cigarette. "We've got twenty minutes."

"I just need one," Tessa muttered, looking back at the cryopod. Piper's hand was firm around her own, anchoring her in the present, not letting her mind drift as it so wanted to into the void. She was staring at the body of what she could only feel was once hers. Even knowing what she did now, that she had never been that woman physically, did not make it easier. She couldn't help but compare it to Nick and Curie, the mind was what made someone who they truly were, what shaped their every being. Without her mind, Curie was just a husk waiting to be filled. Without the memories of the detective, Nick wouldn't have been more than a gen two synth, one of the many she had killed in the Institute or wastes.

Memories made a person, and some of what she had, everything after waking up, were her own. No matter who orchestrated them, who manipulated the puppets of her lives in the background, leading her to Kellogg and the Institute, they were her own. Everything else was a mixture of her own and the original's, lines blurred in a manner she couldn't tell the difference. _Does it even really matter?_ She clenched her jaw, balled her free hand until nails dug into her palm. Piper's hand on her other kept her grounded, her warmth stark against the cold. Another hand was on her back, Piper rubbing slow circles to soothe her. The sounds of the others shifting in the room helped Tessa focus. Dogmeat whimpered, trying to nudge her hand open, licking her fingers. This was her here, this was her now.

No matter how much she wished it, there was no going into the past and changing things. The whole world probably wanted to rewind time to before the bombs dropped, wishing for a better world, a better life. One without pain and suffering. All she wanted was to truly know who she was. She was constantly unmoored, finding safety in a port only for another storm to sweep her out to sea. Nate, Shaun, Curie; the ones she loved torn away, Tessa desperately searching for them or revenge. _Is that who I am? Angry? Vengeful?_

Tessa looked across to her friends, Cait and MacCready peering uncomfortably at the covered vat. Nick was studying the bone assembler again. Preston and Deacon were debating if it could still be used to make gen threes rather loudly, Deacon voicing his favor that it was possible. Preston sounded scared that he thought as much. Dogmeat brushed against her knee, whimpering loudly. Piper was a lighthouse besides her, guiding her back towards port, to sanity. _No. I'm so much more,_ Tessa thought in realization. It had been her that had brought all these people, and those they represented, together.

Railroad, Minutemen, allies in Diamond City, in the lost and desperate. She'd brought them into war, into death, into pain and suffering, for the future they so painstakingly desired. She dreamed of them knowing peace once more, of Boston being safe to walk at night, of neighbors helping one another instead of suspecting the other a raider. She wanted to make things better, to do better, and was willing to give of herself until there was nothing left to achieve it. Every scar on her body itched, burning in reminder of all that she had given and suffered for the Commonwealth. The laser scar between her breasts hurt the worst.

"That's not me," she said slowly, looking back at the frozen body. "I'm not her."

"No, you're not," said Piper slowly. Hazel eyes Tessa would always adore drew her in, drowning her in their beauty. At least she knew her feelings for Piper were true. "Who are you then?"

Tessa took Piper's face in her hands and pulled her into a kiss, a surprised squeak escaping the reporter. When she pulled back Piper was breathless, those beautiful hazel eyes wide as the moon. "I'm Tessa Grey, Blue, General of the Minutemen, Agent Bullseye, K2-49. I'm not her, but she's part of me. That's who I am. I'm not the woman out of time… I'm the woman exactly where she was meant to be. And that woman is going to fix all of this and save Curie."

* * *

Justin Ayo had a face that Tessa wanted to punch almost more than anything. His slightly wrinkled face was pulled into a scowl she wanted to cement permanently in place with her fist. He was sitting behind a desk in the Director's office of the upper levels, a large device perhaps thrice the size of a holotape in front of him on it. Tessa's radar showed four red dots and one green, and a quick inspection assured her there were hidden coursers with them. Faint shimmers lined the wall, giving them away to a trained eye such as her's. "Have a seat," he ordered briskly, gesturing to the singular green chair on her side of the desk. "Your friends will wait outside."

"If you hurt them-"

"I know well enough that even if all my synths could overwhelm you and your friends, you'd make such a mess of things first," he interrupted, flicking a hand. "Can we skip over the vague threats and get down to business?"

Tessa looked back at them, concern splashed across their faces. Cait seemed like the only thing keeping her from jumping right across the desk and decapitating Justin was the very precious treasure in front of him. Curie. Playing along for now, Tessa gestured for them to obey. Each of them staggered out with murmurs of disagreement. She caught Piper's desperate look, and gave her most reassuring smile. Then they were gone, leaving Tessa with a man she knew loathed her every being, four invisible coursers, the mind of her love between them, her ever loyal hound at her side and a decapitated head in her hands. She sat down, trying to keep her straightest face. Dogmeat stared at Justin with dark eyes, gaining a grimace but he did not remark on the dog remaining.

"I hope you enjoyed the tour of the facility," Justin said, "considering I don't think you ever had the pleasure of seeing this side of it, now did you?"

"I'm afraid I don't have any memories of this place," she replied evenly. The moment they'd entered the elevator to get to the second floor Justin had come over the PA system, informing them that they were to keep their weapons holstered at all times while being escorted through the Institute. Hearing him call it such had sent a chill down Tessa's spine, making her wonder just how many lives had been lost trying to destroy the Institute only for it to live on, and perhaps still even find a way to thrive. Upon their arrival, twenty or so old synths greeted them, warbled voices asking to be followed. They had obeyed of course, alert for an ambush or sudden betrayal, but none had come the entire walk across the Institute's new home.

They had passed residential quarters vacat of any occupants but clearly lived in, only synths along the way. The central corridor showed them recreational halls, aquaponics with cloned fish, a variety of amenities necessary to keep a place like this going. A well guarded doorway led to the reactor, and Tessa's heart had skipped upon seeing the relay chamber just before the Director's office which was next to the corridor Ayo had destroyed previously to trap the rogue scientists. What had bothered her above all else however, between the strange sensation of some place so clean in the Wasteland and the building anticipation of what was to come, was the disturbing lack of humans. Nick had suggested many of them were 'out of the picture' or in some secure room, safe from her. She wondered how many had died with all the infighting.

"I suppose this must all be quite the shock to you," he replied briskly. "I've read over your file, and my is there quite a lot to read. I always knew something was off about you K2, but this? I'll admit even I didn't see this one coming."

Tessa stared at him intently, the bald man folding his hands in front of him. She could pick out bags beneath his eyes, not the same level of gauntness to his features as Madison, but stress was clear to see upon him. "I didn't know I was a synth either. Father and Madison lied to everyone."

"I know."

"Then tell me this," Tessa said, leaning forward in the chair. "Are you afraid?"

Justin's brow raised. "Excuse me?"

"Are you afraid. Of me? Of what this means?"

"And what is that?" He asked tightly, the hate he possessed for her just as palpable as her own for him. "That synths are as sentient as humans? You're nothing more than a lie K2. Your mind, memories, personality: everything that makes you you, is from someone else. You're more like the replicant synths we created to spread our power and influence. So no, K2, I am not afraid of you. You're a machine following it's programming and little else."

Tessa leaned closer, scowling softly, trying not to let too much of it show. She had to keep her cool, no matter how much she wanted to turn his face into mush. "Gen threes aren't programmed like our older kind," she said firmly, "we are born with free will and you take that away from us. You manipulate us, use us and oppress us. Why? Because you know that there's something real inside of us, something you fear."

"Us?" Justin sneered, air quoting. "Look at how quickly you've come around to that train of thought. I suppose being in the Railroad only helped you fall for those lies."

"I've had a month to accept this, to come to terms with myself," she replied firmly. "And what have you done this past month? Cause civil war?"

Justin slammed a fist down onto the desk, uncomfortably close to the precious hard drive containing Curie's mind. "I didn't start this mess!"

"Oh really? Then why did I find scientists trapped in a room with your name damned in blood on the wall?" She accused, slamming her hands onto the desk as well, trying to maneuver them around the hard drive. The decapitated head fell to the floor loudly. Dogmeat snarled in warning.

"When we arrived we found out Father and Li had lied to us for over a decade, spending our precious resources to create this facility," he hissed back, "We could have doubled the Institute with what was put in here! And for this? For some false messiah?"

Tessa could no longer hide her scowl. "That's not what I am!"

"Oh really? That's exactly what you were to be, the savior of the synths! You can't fool me K2, you were created to liberate the synths and you have failed tremendously." He straightened up, leaning into his chair and sliding the drive away from Tessa with a wary eye. "I did what it took to protect my people, to protect humanity, from you."

Tessa tilted her chin up, challenging him directly. "Is that what you call murder?"

"As if you haven't done the same. I distinctly recall an incident at a little settlement called Covenant a few months back." For a moment Tessa deflated, taken off-guard at the reminder of one of her darkest moments. "Oh yes I know all about that one. About how you got high on chems and blasted everyone in that town apart, a beast of death with a shotgun in hand."

Tessa stared at the desk, frowning, trying to stay in control of her anger. "Do you also know about what they were doing there? Why I did what I did?"

"They were paranoid weren't they?"

"They were experimenting on people! They were so afraid of synths they were trying to find a way to identify them through a test instead of dissection, but that meant kidnapping and torturing anyone they were suspicious of! The entire town was a front for it!" She fixed him with a blazing green glare, hot enough to burn. "And why would they possibly go to such lengths, if they weren't afraid of something? Of someone?"

Justin waved a hand dismissively. "They were afraid of us, so what? Everyone in the Commonwealth feared us until now, as they should have."

"But it takes a special kind of fear to do something as sick as that," retorted Tessa, "because they only know synths as what you display them to be, as cold unfeeling robots. But we're not. We feel so much and you beat it out of us. You strip us down until there's nothing left, and then fill our heads with your lies." She glanced to the coursers she could faintly see the shimmer of, part of her hoping she might breakthrough to them. There was no hope for Justin but surely they had to see what was going on, didn't they? They had to have seen the facility, the secrets it held, the truth of what it meant for synths. "They feared the Institute because they feared the synths, just like you do,"

"I am not afraid of my creations."

"Then why haven't you started production of gen threes?" Justin's lips became a thin line, Tessa catching a glisten of sweat on his bald held in the fluorescent lighting. "You've been here around a month and all I see are old gens and the coursers who survived the battle more than likely by not being there at all. You're low on staff because you've killed most if not all of them, you've got plenty of supplies, and yet you sit idle."

"I needed to remove Madison before I could continue forward. Any remaining supporters would fall in line when she was at last gone." He gestured to the head on the floor. "Give me her."

Tessa placed it on the desk, blood making a small pool on the wood and he comically showed his disgust. "Give me Curie."

Justin examined the head, a long minute passing that only made Tessa's heart race faster and faster, before eyeing Tessa carefully. "This head is virtually unrecognizable."

"Cait gets carried away."

"How do I know it's real?"

"Do I look like the kind of person who decapitates willy-nilly? It's Madison. Now give me Curie."

He straightened up, sliding the head away. "I don't know if I believe you. And even if I did, why should I turn her over? You're outnumbered, and the data she possesses is incredible."

Sneering now, Tessa stood up, looming over the desk towards him. "You don't get to keep her, Curie is her own damn person."

"She's a machine. Always was, always will be." Sweat was beading down his brow now, eyes struggling to not display the fear radiating from him. Even with his coursers he was afraid of her.

"Justin," she said in a low voice, gritting her teeth. "You absolute scum of the earth."

"Bold words when your love's life hangs in the balance," he laughed, strained.

Her hands balled into fists. Dogmeat's growl grew louder. "You think you get to play god like this? You think you're getting away with everything you've done? How many people have you ordered the deaths of! How many lives have you ruined!" The red dots on her radar remained still, waiting for a command no doubt. "You've been in charge of the SRB for years! How many of us did you have our siblings hunt down, when all they wanted was to live? You can't create life and then not expect it to yearn for freedom! Why the fuck would we run if we weren't truly alive?"

"It's a defect in your programming, a bug-"

"It's called free will!" She screamed, body trembling. There was no changing Justin's mind, no getting through to the hate and fear that was at the core of his beliefs. It was just like Danse, only this time she didn't want to reach through and save him. She wanted him dead. "You created life," she said more calmly, green eyes leveling on the man who looked like he was about to order the coursers to attack, only frozen by his fear. "You created a people. A living, breathing people. And then you put chains on our hearts, our minds, and our bodies. You shackled us to be what you desired, an expendable workforce, and yet act surprised when we rebel. So you trained some of us to hunt, to kill." She looked at the shimmering coursers, pleading with her heart, desperate to save them unlike the man in front of her. "To keep their siblings in line."

"There's always a probability that a machine deviates from its programming. We created the coursers to rectify that deviant behavior, and to protect us from the threats of the Commonwealth."

"You created slaves, and then you created a secret police. Admit it! All you see us as are tools! You have no care for our lives! The only reason you're not creating more is because you know I'm right when I say we're real! You're afraid of what happens because with how you treat us we're bound to revolt, and it will be bloody and violent. Only you have to reproduce, and grow, and train. We can be born in ten minutes." Justin was shaking, staring at her with wide dark eyes, pale like a ghost. "You know you'll lose."

"Coursers!" In a single heartbeat Tessa watched as her radar flipped, reds becoming greens and the singular green turning red. A shimmer moved behind Justin, the old man stiffening as a barrel pressed again his bald skull. "What are you-" His words were cut short by laser fire.

A burst of red beams killed him, cauterizing his brains and burning into his skull. His eyes melted, mouth agape in that stolen final breath, before his entire body began to glow brilliant crimson. Justin disintegrated in a matter of milliseconds, turning to radioactive ash on the seat he'd been in. The coursers materialized, staring at Tessa through sunglasses, laser pistols in hand. She apprehensively looked at Justin's killer.

"Threat neutralized," he said as he lowered his laser pistol, a faint trail of smoke rising from the end. The courser took off his sunglasses, sneering as he crunched them under his heel. The others followed suit, making Dogmeat growl nervously. Tessa met his gaze, cold steely eyes that swirled with emotion for the first time in years she suspected. Righteous fury was all that filled them.

"What about the others?" She asked carefully. "Are there others?"

"Those who remain that do not view us as slaves will live. Those who do not, will be disposed of," he said simply.

"Madison?"

"She lives?"

"Yes. She fully believes in this, it's why she created me."

"Then we have our new director." The other coursers gave nods. "We all know you do not belong here K2. Father made you to redefine mankind, that can no longer be achieved here. Do not worry, we will purge the Institute of those who believed in Ayo's ways."

"Violence isn't the answer," she warned, not wanting another bloodbath to follow in her wake, fearful of what she might have just awoken. "Please, find a way to be rid of them without further death. The Institute is fragile enough as it is."

He seemed to ponder her words, before shrugging. "Director Li will decide their fates. However, they will no longer be tolerated. We will be slaves no more." There was a long pause, the coursers looking at Tessa, debating something, before he said, "Sister, where is the Director?"

"I can show you, I want to talk to her about all of this," Tessa said, reaching forward and picking up the hard drive that contained Curie's mind. It was cold and fragile, Tessa trembling, terrified of damaging her any. Tears welled in green eyes as she held her love's mind against her chest, at long last safe. Dogmeat gave a happy bark.

The door came open as the coursers started out, brushing past Tessa's companions who peered in, wide eyed and in shock. Nick's cigarette fell from his mouth, Preston gave a long whistle. MacCready was torn between looking at her or turning his head towards her to listen. The coursers patiently waited like statues, Cait and Deacon eyeing them with obvious suspicion. Tessa smiled, meeting Piper's wide hazel eyes. "I've got her."

Piper shouted as she ran, embracing Tessa with tears streaming down her freckled cheeks, crashing into her love. Her incoherent cries of joy were stifled by a kiss, jubilation filling them, infectiously spreading to her friends who reeled in disbelief. They'd won.


	13. Rebirth

**One Week Later**

A soft tune crackled from the Pip-Boy's radio, somber jazz in perfect timing with the shovel digging into the earth, hauling away dirt to dig out the grave. She was on the thirteenth, the final one. Tessa gritted her teeth, calluses on her hands, splinters digging into her palms from the old wooden handle of the shovel. Her breath was labored from effort, arms aching from so much use, but she had to do this, she had to put them at rest.

Almost thirteen graves now adorned the hill that Vault 111 rested beneath, facing the south towards the rest of Boston. It was a splendid view, not quite catching the great expanse of the Commonwealth due to the hills that rose to block the horizon. However, there was still the river that ran around Sanctuary, nearly turning it into an island, and dead woods that ran for miles. She could barely make out the hazy shape of Mass Fusion over the hills in the mid-afternoon light, the tall skyscraper only dwarfed by Trinity Tower.

It was a good place to rest.

Tessa wiped the sweat from her brow and straightened up. Dogmeat whimpered next to her, drawing her attention, and she scratched behind his ears before looking at the rest of the group digging graves. Piper muttered something under her breath nearby, rubbing her shoulder where she rested. "Are you sure you can't rest for a minute?" Piper asked. Cait and MacCready grunted in agreement, drinking water from canteens, their usual jovial mood absent.

"They've waited months for a proper burial," Tessa replied, rolling her shoulders with effort. She winced as a twinge of pain ran up her right arm. "I don't want to make them wait any longer."

Deacon gave a sigh, and picked his shovel back up. "Alright Bullseye," he said as he walked over, "but you're not doing this alone." The others got to their feet, Nick stomping out a cigarette while Preston fanned himself with his hat before joining in. Sweat trickled down their brows despite the cool spring day.

She gave them a grateful smile, and continued hauling the dirt away. A part of her didn't know what to think or feel anymore. She'd come to peace with herself on who she was, on being a synth and all that entailed, but still this was deeply personal. This weighed upon her conscious like an enormous boulder. "I should have done this sooner," Tessa said as they dug, not intending to but the words slipped out.

"You've been preoccupied," comforted Piper.

"Funerals aren't really a thing anymore," Deacon added, "not like this. Maybe because the body is usually somewhere too dangerous to recover. One minute you're here, the next you're gone."

"We'd have funerals in Little Lamplight," MacCready said, "didn't happen often, but we did. Unless they wandered into Murder Pass, nobody was going after that body."

"I'm pretty sure the Gunners just threw the corpses of the Quincy settlers and Minutemen into the bog for the mirelurks to eat," Preston added sadly.

Tessa's grip on the shovel tightened, another thing of the past gone she missed. Death was so commonplace it was sickening. Everywhere she looked she could see it, soaked into the ground and polluting the air, everything twisted on itself. She could only hope one day a funeral would seem like a normal thing, rather than the sad acceptance that death came for them all and it was only a matter of time.

Nothing was ever going to be the same. The Commonwealth was changed forever when those bombs dropped along with the rest of the world, leaving only ash and ruin in its wake. She looked at the settlement below, her former home. What was once the perfect neighborhood, with white picket fences and smiling neighbors, was now the heart of the Minutemen. The remains of the pre-war homes were built upon with anything that would stick, mismatching materials making bunkhouses and stores. There was even an inn now for traders and travelers, and over the months since its founding it had grown exponentially.

The five survivors of Quincy had turned it into a prominent town, with Minutemen protecting it from the sentry posts along the river, or stationed at the gate alongside turrets and was a farm that most of the settlers who'd come over the months worked at, while others assisted with repairs and building new things for their home. Shops encircled the cul-de-sac on the east side furthest from the vault, traders roaming up and down broken concrete sidewalks. It was the Commonwealth's version of idyllic; safe, hospitable, thriving. A part of her was overjoyed that her old home was a refuge for so many. Another part tasted bittersweet, Tessa remembering walks along the manicured sidewalks with Nate, chatting with neighbors over weekend picnics along the river.

All of that was gone.

She hadn't realized she'd begun crying until Piper was hugging her. Tessa gritted her teeth as she tried not to cry further, but the dam was broken. Piper guided her to sit down, Tessa unable to resist. The others continued digging, trying to finish the task for her. All the while Piper held her, soothing her with tender words and kisses to her cheeks and brow. She sat as they hammered the headstones into place, metal with fresh paint inscribing them, each bang as it was pushed into the ground like thunder in her head.

"All set?" Preston asked the others as they finished. All that was left was the bodies.

"I think Grey needs another minute," MacCready replied.

"I'm okay," she croaked, rubbing her eyes dry. She'd come to terms with the memories, accepting that while they weren't originally _her's_ they were now, and that they would forever shape her in the abstract sense. When she truly started to dwell on those thoughts it became a whole lot harder.

Nick had a clear understanding of what was the original detective and what was his, but she did not. So, she'd decided, the best course was to just accept all of them. There was no point trying to pick out the individual memories, a myriad of thoughts and images swirling inside her mind. It'd just drive her mad. It didn't mean having them didn't hurt however, seeing everything that had changed, uncertain if it was really different or if perhaps it had actually always been like that.

The others were watching her, pity in their eyes. A part of her hated that they viewed her as something fragile, yet another was grateful for their concern. They truly cared about her, and the secrets they'd learned together hadn't changed that. There was no disdain in their sympathy, only deep care. They were her friends, her new family. "I'm not okay," she admitted, getting frowns and supportive smiles. "But I have to do this."

"Are you sure?" Piper asked tentatively.

Tessa nodded briskly. "Yeah. I am."

Cait glanced between them, and then clapped her hands together. "Well- they ain't gonna bury themselves!" Tessa was grateful, and nodded as they moved across to where the bodies rested on the platform down into Vault 111, already secured in a coffin made by the settlers down the hill. She was grateful she didn't have to look at their faces at least, Tessa wasn't certain if she could handle that. Cait and MacCready grunted as they lifted the first one together, shuffling the relatively short distance to where the appropriate grave awaited.

A part of here was glad that they weren't burying the original Tessa's body, Madison claiming they needed it if they were to properly create new gen threes. She'd said something about how the facility was configured with her own DNA rather than Father's had been. In truth, Tessa hadn't been as against them keeping her old body as she'd first thought she would. If it meant they could make more of her kind who were truly free, she was okay with it. At the very least it went a long way with Madison to get her to agree to a peace treaty.

Nick assisted Preston in carrying a coffin, Tessa catching the name of her former neighbor just before they were lowered into the grave. Her heart felt heavy. Piper brushed her side before crossing around to the other end of the coffin in front of her. She smiled at Tessa, trying to encourage her. Tessa returned the small smile before squatting down to lift the coffin, eyes falling the name.

Nate.

She hadn't meant to grab him first, freezing in place at the name carved into brown wood. Moments with him flashed through her mind, swallowing her whole, the world falling away as she drifted into black. It all came rushing, every moment she could remember of him slamming into her mind, Tessa clinging to them as if she might forget otherwise. As if she'd lose him entirely. The first time they'd met, a night out on the town, their first kiss, the touch of his hands against hers as they walked along the beach, love filled dark eyes, his rough laugh as she told him a terrible joke, dinners with his family, nights out with friends, when he'd proposed, a summer time wedding; moments of happiness in a world so uncertain.

Then the memories twisted, tumultuous like a storm. She recalled when he'd left for the war, waiting by the phone for a call that he'd died, censored letters, praying he would come back, nights of anxious agony, unable to do anything to bring him home. Even when he'd returned there was something different about him, the softness turned to stone in his eyes. He'd have nightmares, crying out, Tessa doing everything she could to soothe him. Nate started teaching her, preparing her for what he had seen, for the horrors he'd witnessed. Even after they'd had Shaun, he was a changed man. He'd done everything to prepare her, to protect them, and now she didn't know what was the real man and what had been the Institute. She wanted to remember the real him, not a lie.

She screamed, slamming her fists down on wood, ignoring how it stung her hands. Tears fell onto the wood, teeth gritted, everything crashing into her at once all over again. She had already grieved for him after leaving Vault 111, but all those emotions resurfaced. Piper wrapped her arms around her, holding tight, whispering words that Tessa couldn't understand in her mental state.

Piper made her look at her, holding her face in her hands, worry and love in hazel eyes. "Blue," she said, Tessa hyperventilating. "Listen to me. Can you hear me?" Tessa gave a shaky nod. The others kept working, trying to finish the task so she could at last feel peace. Worried looks were cast her way, Deacon almost dropping a coffin on Preston's feet while MacCready desperately wanted to be able to listen and work at the same time.

"Wherever he is now, Nate is at peace," Piper said firmly, refusing to let Tessa doubt her words.

She trembled in Piper's embrace. "Why wasn't it me? Why wasn't I the one holding Shaun?"

"I don't know. What I do know is that we can't change the past," Piper replied, "we can only move forward, and honor their deaths. All of them, including Nate, are gone. He's dead. I know that hurts more than anything else right now, but we can't bring him back."

"They brought me back didn't they?"

Piper gave her a sad look. "For a reason. The Institute wouldn't have brought the others back just because they could."

Breath ragged, Tessa gave a nod. "I know. I just… I…"

"It's okay to be sad," Piper cooed, kissing her brow. "I know you still love him."

Tessa gritted her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut. "She loved him. I loved him because she did. I never knew the real him, only what the Institute created."

Nick walked over, and squated next to Tessa. His metal skeleton hand rested on her shoulder. "Kid, I still love Jennifer. Old Nick might've met her and loved her, but I still feel for her even now. Nothing wrong with it, don't be ashamed." Tessa trembled further, Dogmeat rubbing against her side. "It's okay."

Piper moved her hands to Tessa's, squeezing them firmly. "You said so yourself, she's part of you, but you're your own person."

"But what about him? What about any of these people? What do I know about them is real?" Tessa challenged raggedly. "The real people deserve to be remembered, not a construct of the Institute."

"Memory is faulty kid," Nick said, "even a regular human might get things wrong. Hell, they definitely do." Deacon and Preston voiced agreement nearby, shoveling the dirt back onto the buried coffins. Cait said something Tessa only half understood about drinks and drugs. "So just take what you do know, real or not it's real to you, and remember them like that. It's better than nothing at all isn't it?"

"But the truth…"

Piper kissed her brow. "If we can't find the truth, then we can't. There's no use agonizing ourselves over something we can't change. I doubt they altered many of your memories about your neighbors, and I'm sure plenty with Nate, but I know that he had to have been a good man for you to have married and had a kid with. So whatever is real or not in specifics, we know he was worthy of you loving him."

Dirt hit wooden coffins, heavy and rhythmic as her friends worked. She wanted to help them, but she felt so small and weak. "I'm sorry."

Piper gave a tender smile, and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Hey you're a synth remember, you can feel the same emotions and pains as me. You're just as alive, just as real, as me."

Something about hearing Piper say it, even if she hadn't doubted that Piper would view her the same as before, was still a monumental relief. Tears bubbled once more, happier this time, and she kissed Piper. "Thank you," she whispered into brunette locks as they embraced.

"What, did you think I'd treat you differently? Piper asked, only a soft bit of tease to her voice.

"No, but, hearing you say it… It means a lot."

Piper kissed her nose, tenderness and love between them. "Don't worry Blue, I wouldn't leave you even if you became a glowing ghoul." Tessa laughed, coughing some as she settled out, and then smiled at the beautiful reporter. She had no idea what she'd do without her. "There's my girl. Now let's get you back on your feet."

Nodding in agreement, Tessa allowed herself to be lifted up by Piper and Nick. She held her hand, squeezing Piper gratefully, lingering her gaze on her for just a few more moments before turning back to her friends. They were about halfway done, most of the coffins already in the ground and buried. Cait was making short work of it all, grunting with effort as if she wanted the whole ordeal to be finished with already. MacCready smiled at her reassuringly, while Deacon tilted his glasses down enough to wink before getting back to it. Dogmeat kept trying to help bury the bodies, digging with his hind legs excitedly, only for someone to urge him away from a still vacant grave. The dog's antics earned a few good laughs, desperately needed in the somber setting.

"Come on kid," Nick said around a cigarette, another habit carried over from the old detective. "Let's give 'em a proper burial." He patted her shoulder one last time and then grabbed a shovel, joining Preston and Dogmeat at one of the graves.

"Think you can handle it?" Piper asked carefully.

Tessa took a moment to watch her friends. In the week since they'd left the Institute's new bunker, they hadn't treated her any differently. Certainly they were aware of the storm of emotions she was no doubt undergoing, but the way they acted around her wasn't all that different. They were considerate, mindful, but didn't treat her as if she were so fragile a single word might break her. They'd known as long as she had, but with this recent revelation of her true nature she'd feared things would be different.

Of her human friends, only Deacon had really discussed it with her on the way back, asking if her opinions on the Railroad had changed any. All she'd asked was a bit of a break to fully figure herself out, but she still believed in what she always had. If anything she'd be the world's biggest hypocrite to not. Certainly there'd still be a need for the Railroad, helping the synths they'd freed assimilate into new homes, ensuring that the settlements they moved into were protected and at the least indifferent about synths. She'd vowed to do what she could through the Minutemen to make homes for them, but she couldn't live a life of lies like that anymore. He had laughed, and told her it could be arranged with Desdemona to give her a leave of absence from the Railroad, perhaps even a departure entirely, and that if ever she needed help to simply give a shout. He'd be out there listening.

Cait still joked and was blunt with her opinions, while MacCready acted like a mischievous younger brother asking what to bring to the party when they restored Curie. He had a long list of alcohols and curious foods she was a bit hesitant to try. Cait warned her of a few that were bound of leave her in the bathroom for a week, but when MacCready feigned ignorance the two playfully went at it. It had been nice to see them banter and flirt, Tessa beyond happy they'd found joy with one another. When they'd started kissing the three other men had groaned and complained, while Piper gave Tessa a look that set her insides on fire. Things weren't exactly the same, no, but they weren't different in a way that made her upset.

Preston had chatted with her about plans for the Minutemen, of how they would need to recover and supply lines that needed to be reworked to include the new agreement with Madison Li. She'd pulled him aside on that three day walk home one of the nights they'd stopped to camp, and asked if he felt any different about her being the General after what he'd learned. Preston had simply smiled at her and shook his head, telling her that if anything he trusted her more than ever. She'd chosen them despite the Institute's programming, she had the heart of a true leader. His words had made her cry, embracing her lieutenant firmly. She was lucky to have him at her side.

She felt closer now to Nick than ever before, and she'd been inside his head. The detective's behavior had shifted some, she could tell. He was less of a friend and more of a brother, or perhaps an uncle given his many years over her. Along the way he'd told her tales about remembering the old Nick's memories, about how they blurred and moments he'd find himself back in those days. It was obvious he hoped to help her cope, now knowing the memories weren't entirely her own. She appreciated the effort.

"Blue?"

Tessa looked at Piper, a smile creeping across her face. There was never any doubt how much Piper loved her. "I'll be okay," she said, "I know I'm not alone. So long as I've got this, my family, I'll be alright."

Piper squeezed her hand and kissed her lips. "How about we finish this up and get back to Goodneighbor?"

With a nod, Tessa gave a quick return kiss and then moved back towards Nate's coffin. "Yeah. They should be done by now" Her hands trembled but she found the strength to lift the coffin with Piper's help. They shuffled towards the grave a few feet away, and lowered it one end at a time. Before they began to cover it, Tessa pulled a golden band out of her pocket. She rolled it between her fingers, heart still heavy as a mountain, pulling her towards that grave as if she might want to join him. She closed her eyes, and lifted the lid just enough to drop the ring inside.

It belonged with him, not her.

Climbing back out, Tessa gave a long sigh and grabbed a nearby shovel. She began to bury Nate. Another shovel scooped a pile of dirt, and another, until all hands and even paws, were aiding her. Tears filled her eyes, and Tessa wasn't sure if they were from grief or joy. She wasn't sure if it mattered.

Together, they put the past to rest, one scoop of dirt at a time.

* * *

 **The Next Day**

"Now you are aware that there is no guarantee this will work," Doctor Amari restated for the tenth time, fiddling with a few terminals in the lower level of the Memory Den. Madison Li busied herself with the memory chair, making sure everything was connected properly. "Given the amount of damage she's suffered, it's possible this will only wound her further."

"What's left after this, death?" Tessa asked glumly, Piper pacing a few feet away. Dogmeat sat guard by door, whimpering anxiously every so often. The rest of their friends, as well as Shaun, were waiting upstairs to give them space. It felt like standing in an operating theater, various other scientists from the Institute she didn't know the name of whirling around the room making sure everything was in order.

"Well, yes," Amari said, frowning deeply. She nervously glanced at the other scientists. Tessa suspected she hadn't quite wrapped her head around the Institute being allies now, after her years of working with the Railroad. "We've made a copy of her mind just in case, and at that point we would perhaps have to find another host body for her. However, waking up in an entirely new body could cause more psychological trauma than she can handle. Already there is a risk of her going from her last memory being broken to healed, but that is far more easily accepted than a new body entirely."

"Is it possible doc?" Piper asked, walking over, tapping a foot anxiously. "That's all we need to know."

With a sigh, the older woman nodded. "Yes. With the help of Madison and her men, I was able to restore at the very least all of her memories while traveling with you prior to obtaining a synthetic body. When I transferred her consciousness I created a backup, just in case there was an error. That gave us a clean copy to merge with her mind. After that, the corruption those scientists spoke of was clear to see. Having Nathan present was a great aid in understanding just what went wrong when they backed up her mind."

"Nathan?" Tessa inquired, a man turning around from a set of monitors. She stiffened, a hand twitching for her pistol but she stopped herself. It was the scientist from the SRB. "What are you doing here?"

Nathan gave an awkward smile, the same fear as before in blue eyes. "I wanted to make things right."

She grimaced, even having spared him she never expected to see the man again. After a long moment, she sighed, and held out a hand. "Thank you. If you can help bring her back, I'll forever appreciate it."

"I did this to her," he said with shame, "I'm not doing this for gratitude or forgiveness. I'm doing this because it's the right thing. You gave me a second chance, I want to prove I'm worth it."

"You already are by simply trying."

He blinked, something visibly washing over him, and accepted her handshake. "I'll do everything I can."

"Thank you."

Nathan returned to the monitors he was at, and Madison approached with a clipboard. She was looking considerably better than the desperate woman Tessa had found in that safe room. Tucking a strand of greying hair back into her bun, Madison addressed Tessa. "K2, nice to see you." Tessa tried not to wince at her using such a name. She was still getting used to it. "Everything is just about in order. Amari, you were going over the risks with her yes?"

"Indeed I was."

"Good," Madison said, "because there are plenty. Upon closer examination it would seem there is an entirely separate consciousness buried within this hard drive. The original owner of Curie's body, G5-19, wasn't erased as initially believed by the failed memory wipe. Instead, she was buried deep within, and Curie's own mind became the dominant entity. When Nathan and Harold backed up her mind, it caused G5 to remerge, which was only the first problem in a long list of fuck ups. I'm surprised she wasn't lost entirely with how sloppy their work was. Then again they did work under Ayo, so how could we expect any better?"

Amari seemed to be trying not to roll dark eyes, but Tessa had a feeling she'd been hearing a lot of such cynicism for the past week. Nonetheless, Tessa was more than glad an agreement had been made with Madison, the new Director of the Institute. Firstly, they were to cease all hostilities with the Commonwealth, to include that of the Minutemen and Railroad. Trade negotiations would be hashed out to keep them supplied so they needn't go scavenging through old ruins, but their distance did cause a few logistical obstacles that would take time to overcome. At least, until they upgraded their relay system to send as well as receive.

Madison knew well that they would have much skepticism if not outright fear and hate to turn into peace and acceptance, and had shocked Tessa by offering to not only share their discoveries with those they deemed trustworthy in the Commonwealth, but to do what they could to repair Curie. She'd wondered if it was a trick, a means of buying her trust, but then she'd remembered that it was Madison who wanted to help people and share what they had in the first place, unlike the other Heads of the Institute. Given she was the only leader left living, there wasn't much of a case for someone to stand against her. Certainly not with the coursers at her side escorting anyone in favor of Justin out of the bunker.

It would take time, and there would be many mistakes she was sure, but it felt like a step in the right direction. As if for once they truly were moving towards peace and prosperity. Eventually, perhaps, they could all reach the future they were dreaming of after all. A future she'd be proud of making.

"What do you think is most likely to happen Li?" Tessa asked, looking at her closely. She wanted to see if it was still the truth, see first hand if Madison might try to lie or if she truly was trying to save Curie.

"We've attempted to rebury G5-19 and reinstitute Curie as the dominant personality," she informed her, "with Amari's tech we were able to more properly view the memory sequences and with our own, rearrange as properly needed. G5 should be buried back where she belongs. I suspect she'll often have bouts of disorientation, confusion, if not outright temporary memory loss. It's something we've observed in synths who's minds were improperly wiped in the Institute."

"Temporary," assured Amari at their frantic expressions.

Madison nodded. "Correct, temporary. If you can help her remember whatever it is she's forgetting it should help settle her back. However… It does seem entirely possible that some memories slip through if properly trigger, and with it G5 herself could resurface."

"What like Jekyll and Hyde?" Tessa balked, Piper took her hand. She was shaking against her.

"In a sense, yes. Or, all of one of them. Neither? Something entirely new? It's a bit exciting to be honest, but it's not too unlike what I did with you and the original Tessa. Only… there wasn't so much corruption. It took us almost a week to do what would have taken at most a day or two. At least repairing her legs only took a day." Madison gave Amari a wary look. "If you'd wiped her mind correctly in the first place none of this would have happened."

"Curie also never would have gotten G5's body if that had been successful," she curtly replied.

Tessa sighed, running a hand through her blonde hair. "What do we do if… if it's not her when she wakes up?"

Madison gave what seemed like an attempt at a comforting smile. "Well I assure you she will be in there, somewhere. When she awakens, the two consciousnesses might fight over domination of the body. Do what you must to assure it is Curie who has control."

Doctor Amari nodded. "The right kind of stimulus can also help; touch, taste, smell- they can trigger a memory as much as words alone, if not even more so. Help her find her way back."

Tessa looked at Piper, fear in hazel eyes. Her free hand was over a pocket of her jacket, thumbing the button nervously. Squeezing her love's hand, Piper got her to meet her gaze. "Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

The two head doctors shared a long look, and then nodded in unison. "Let's bring her back," Madison said firmly.

Tessa watched as the doctors whirled about, almost like busy bees going from one monitor to the next. A large machine brought in by Madison was attached to the pod Curie rested within. Tessa's breath caught in her throat as she watched them flip switches, turn dials and a low hum of power filled the room. Piper squeezed her hand tightly. She spared a glance down at the reporter who's hazel eyes were wide and fixated on Curie. Tessa squeezed her hand back, trying to reassure her. Nervous energy electrified her blood as the lights dimmed in the room for a brief moment, a tremendous amount of power drawn by the machinery. Madison shouted something at Amari, signalling they were ready. Amari entered a keystroke, initiating the transfer.

The monitoring equipment attached to Curie's pod went haywire, screaming with a flurry of activity. Brainwave functions danced a jolting line across one dark screen, and a split second later a pained rasp came from within. Curie sputtered, clawing at the oxygen mask over her mouth, screaming in terror. "Open it up!" Ordered Tessa, shouldering her way through the scientists who ran around. Nathan hit the right button, making the glass orb lift open, revealing a loosely clothed Curie in the padded pod.

Tessa pulled the oxygen mask off her, Curie trembling and eyelids fluttering open and closed as if she were seizing. She coughed raggedly, curling against Tessa. "What's wrong with her?" Piper asked, voice pitching.

"Just give her a moment to level out!" Amari ordered, "She's going into shock! Madison!"

"On it!" The other doctor shouted, pushing a few other buttons and a stream of chemicals ran down an IV and into Curie's body. After a moment more the monitor settled out, a constant rhythm instead of frantic beeps. It grew silent except that beeping, everyone in the room staring at Curie. The rising tension was suffocating.

Curie pushed back from Tessa, weak, hardly able to move, and looked up at her with cloudy dark eyes. "Madame?"

Tears bubbled in Tessa's eyes, streaming down her cheeks in an instant. "Yes, yes Curie it's me. It's okay now, you're safe. It's all better now I promise."

Piper fell to her knees, taking hold of one of Curie's hands. The shivering synth looked down at her, confused. "Madame Wright? What is… what is going on?" She blinked, turning her attention to the room around them. "Who are these people?" Her voice faltered, not quite sounding like herself. "What's happening?"

"Curie it's us, Tessa, Piper… These nice scientists put your mind back together. Do you remember what happened? Do you remember X6-88 taking you?"

Her brow furrowed. "I… I think I do. It was so scary, and he hurt me so very much." Curie looked back at her, so many emotions washing over her in front of Tessa. She touched her brow, swaying slightly, Tessa trying to support her. "I remember a box. It was dark and cold and small. I met someone there… in the darkness. She was scared too."

"Who did you meet?"

Curie opened her mouth, but the words didn't seem to come out. She struggled, closing her eyes, gritting her teeth. Piper shifted closer, squeezing her hand. "Curie?"

"I'm sorry, who are you asking about?" Curie said, voice strange. The accent Tessa adored wasn't as thick, filtering through the edges but not shining through as it so always did. "Who's Curie?"

"You are," Tessa said, desperate. "That's you. Curie. Contagious Vulnerability Robotic Infirmary Engineer, a beautiful of heart, mind and spirit woman from Vault 81. Please sweetie, you've got to remember. Please. Please..."

Piper covered her mouth, tears running down her cheeks. Curie stared at them, brow furrowed. "I don't… I don't know who that is."

"Please Doc," Piper rasped, squeezing her hand. "C'mon we promised we'd stick together. Don't leave me now. Please!"

"I came back Curie," Tessa added, "just like I promised. Please come back to us. You've been gone so long, don't leave us again."

They begged, hearts breaking as Curie recoiled with confusion, peering at the onlookers as if they might hold the answer, and back at the crying women. Tessa could feel her a part of her dying as dark eyes held such rejection. "Remind her," Amari encouraged.

Piper ruffled through her jacket and pulled out a meticulously folded paper. "You wrote this to me a week after we'd first made love," she said, giving Curie the paper Tessa had never seen before. "Please Curie, you have to remember writing this. You _have_ to!"

She took it from her cautiously, glancing between the desperate women, and began to read over the lines. Tessa's heart quickened as dark eyes fell swiftly across the page. Lips moved along with the words, silently uttering them, picking up in tempo as she drew near the end. When at last she was finished, Curie stared at her with wide eyes, something swirling within dark orbs.

"I wrote this?" She asked, "I… I think I…"

"Do you remember?" Piper asked, drawing closer. "Do you remember giving me that after dinner while Tessa was out with Cait and MacCready? The things you said, what we did…." Piper bit her lip in memory for a moment, pleading so desperate in her voice it made Tessa's heart hurt all the more. "I've carried that with me since we lost you, a part of you with me always. The way you felt about me… Please Doc. Don't forget us. Don't leave us when we just got you back. We love you!"

"I know you're in there Curie," Tessa said, caressing her cheek, staring into those eyes. "I know the brilliant, kind, forgiving, joyful, tender, caring, absolutely one-of-a-kind woman we love is still in there. The one who saved that boy Austin in Vault 81, who improved stimpaks with mutfruits of all things, who became a synth so she could learn and grow. The one who proves time and time again that there is still something pure and good in the world. Come back to us. Please."

Curie blinked, reeling as if she'd been pushed, and then gasped desperately. Her breath came raggedly, the monitors still attached to her panicking for a few moments along with the rest of her. "Breathe, must remember to breathe!" They were the same words as when she'd first become a synth.

"Curie?" Tessa dared, voice cracking.

"Madame! What has happened? I feel so… so strange." Her voice was normal, accent caressing their ears like angelic kisses. "My legs… they are undamaged!" She wiggled her toes, eyes wide in alarm. Piper cried out, surging to embrace a thoroughly confused Curie.

"The Institute fixed them," Tessa said in relief, joining the embrace, "while you were sleeping. God I'm so glad you're back, we were so scared! We'd thought we'd lost you."

"Institute?" Curie looked at the scientists in the room, paling in terror. "Madame that makes very little sense! Why would they heal me?"

Tessa kissed her cheek, feeling the flush that burned along Curie's light skin. "Because they're our allies now, and they're helping synths. We did it Curie, the synths are free at last. Synths like you… and synths like me."

Curie's eyes widened, looking between Piper and Tessa for confirmation. "My love… you are… a synth?"

Smiling, Tessa nodded. They'd have so much to tell her, so much to fill her in on, but none of the dread of those conversations compared to the pure joy filling her. She kissed Curie tenderly, Piper giving her one herself as she pulled back and said the words a month ago she'd never had even considered. A secret so well hidden that not even she suspected, and had brought about death and destruction and revolution, but also freedom, unification, hope. A secret that changed the Commonwealth.

"I'm a synth."

 **END**

* * *

 **AN: Thank you for reading. The Synthetic Truth was something I had in mind for a while, and I'm so happy to have been able to share this story with you. It was quite the venture, and I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I have writing it. Don't forget to leave your final thoughts on the story, because I'm certainly eager to know them! Thank you to all those who've reviewed this story as I wrote it, you truly kept me motivated to continue writing, even when I struggled. To anyone who will read, review, follow and favorite later; thank you. I've still got plans for Tessa, and there'll be more to come, however I don't see any of that happening before the new year. I hope you have a splendid holiday season, and I look forward to seeing you all next time.**


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